CURSO PANORAMA DE DERECHO MARITIMO- Veracruz, Mexico / Agosto 2016

http://www.amanac.org.mx/sitio2008/cursos/panorama_DerechoMaritimoMexicano_2016.htm

ACQ GLOBAL AWARDS: MEXICO-THE LEADING SHIPPING AND TRANSPORT LAWYER OF THE YEAR 2016

Juan Carlos Merodio López, Socio Director de M&L Estudio Legal, fue distinguido en la categoría Mexico: Leading Shipping And Transport Lawyer Of The Year-2016 en el marco de la entrega de los ACQ Global Awards organizados por parte de la revista británica ACQ5.

Merodio López es abogado, con diplomado en finanzas por The Euromoney Institute de Londres, Inglaterra, y finalizó sus estudios de maestría en Derecho por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

En 1991 fue socio principal y fundador de la firma M&L Estudio Legal, firma dedicada a la consultoría y representación de asuntos en materia de transporte y desarrollo de infraestructura.

Cabe señalar que los ACQ Global Awards reconocen los éxitos, la innovación y la excelencia, de manera anual, de los profesionales de negocios alrededor del mundo.

La selección de los premios se realiza mediante un procedimiento en el cual la propia industria elige a los ganadores y uno de los temas que se toman en cuenta para la premiación es el uso de las mejores prácticas dentro de la industria.

Para esta edición en el proceso de selección de ganadores participaron más de 128 mil votantes alrededor del mundo.

Laytime and Demurrage. Speech by John Schofield on the 30th anniversary of the texbook.

Laytime and Demurrage Reception – 26^th May 2016 – John Schofield’s  Address

My Lord’s, ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of Taylor and Francis, their parent company, Informa, as well as Michael Daiches and myself, may we welcome you to this Reception to mark the 30^th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of my book, Laytime and Demurrage in 1986 and the publication of the 7^th edition earlier this year.  It also marks 35 years of Mike Daiches’ tenure as Editor of Lloyd’s Maritime Law Newsletter.

The origins of the concept of Laytime and Demurrage,  can, as Chapter One of the 7^th edition of my book makes clear,  via the Laws of Oleron and  Eleanor of Acquitaine, the wife first of Henry VII of France, then Henry II of England (who is in the news this week, which has been dubbed Henry II week for what happened to Thomas a Becket),   be traced back to the Lex Rhodia which governed trade in the Mediterranean for over a thousand years. It was Eleanor who was also   the mother of Richard I, Richard the Lionheart, and regent whilst he was away at the crusades,  who introduced  the laws of Oleron, part of her native Acquitaine,  into English law.

My own connections with the sea and maritime matters, do not go back quite that far, but they do go back  55 years to when I joined  Dartmouth or Britannia Royal Naval College,  HMS DARTMOUTH to give it its full name, in 1961. I am particularly pleased to see 2 of those who joined the Navy with me, so long ago, with us today.  In those days, there was no graduate entry to Dartmouth so I went straight from school.

A few years later when Mike Daiches joined, he already had a law degree.

I joined as a General List officer and the Murray Scheme of entry, under which I joined  provided for a four year training cycle before being given my first complement job.  That involved time at Dartmouth undergoing partly professional and partly academic training,  a term as a Cadet in the Dartmouth Training Squadron and a year in the fleet as a Midshipman.  The wider experience I gained in that period ranged from a number of hours flying training in Tiger Moth biplanes at Robourgh airport, made of wood and canvas, doing low altitude bomb attacks on the Cape Wrath lighthouse in Hawker Hunter jets  and even submarine escape training from a 100 foot tower at HMS DOLPHIN at Gosport to stripping down a diesel engine and rebuilding it in the workshops at Dartmouth. I can assure you that if you have ever done a loop the loop in an open cockpit biplane and looked up at the ground, that is something  you will not forget.

At the end of the 4 year cycle having gained a certificate of competence  as a daytime bridge watch keeper and an Ocean Navigation Certifcate confirming my competence at star and sun sights , I was one of half a dozen officers provisionally selected for full time legal training lasting  approaching 4 years, the first two years being to get up to law degree standard, then the Bar Professional  Training Course, call to the Bar and finally pupillage. The Navy’s thinking at the time was that you can turn a sailor into a lawyer but not the other way round.  That half dozen provisionally selected was eventually reduced to two to actually undergo legal training  and I was one of the two so selected to start training at the Inns of Court School of Law here in Gray’s Inn in 1972, after eleven years in the Navy. It was also in 1972 that I joined Gray’s Inn.

Amongst those I met when I arrived at Gray’s Inn was my good friend Jim Collins, who is with us today and who can fairly be described at the Godfather of Laytime and Demurrage.  Having returned from Uganda, where he was a teacher, Jim decided to strike out in a new direction and read for the Bar, but because his first degree was in Physics and pure Mathematics, he also was required to do  the course at the Inns of Court School of Law to get up to law degree standard, as did another friend of ours, Guy Jones, who is due to go into hospital today for an operation tomorrow and who we wish well, who also had to do the degree standard course, even though he did have a law degree, although one issued by Perth Univerity, that is Perth in Western Australia.  After we were each called to the Bar, we all  went our separate ways, me back to the Navy,  I left the Navy in 1980, my last job being standing by HMS GLASGOW during fitting out in Swan Hunter’s Shipyard and participating in extended sea trials of over 6 months with her, invaluable experience for dealing with shipbuilding disputes.

On leaving the Navy, I  got a job with Bilbrough’s the Managers of the London P&I Club, handling the full range of P&I and Defence cases, including laytime and demurrage cases.  Jim, who by then had gone back to teaching, but this time teaching law at what is now part of Middlesex University,  persuaded me to do a 2 year part time course at what is now the Guildhall University, resulting in me gaining a Master’s degree in Business law.

Jim then approached Lloyds of London press, saying he would like to write a law book asking what would they like it to be on. They said they would like a book on  Laytime and Demurrage.  He said he didn’t know anything about laytime and demurrage  but he knew someone who did, me, so we signed a contract that we would produce a 150,000 word draft  within 12 months.

Towards the end of that period, in mid 1984, Jim got the offer of an excellent job in Hong Kong, which he naturally accepted.  By then I had written 10,000 words but had also done a lot of research, which left me with the decision of whether to complete the project on my own or abandon it.  I decided to complete it.  The first edition in those pre-desk top days was produced on a manual portable typewriter with the aid of a bottle of snopake.

There is a quotation about writing this sort of book from Sir Winston Churhill, who said:

“It starts off as a mild flirtation, it becomes a love affair, a deep and passionate matter and when you can stand the pain no more, it is flung upon an ungrateful public.”

The first part is certainly true, but perhaps not the last.

For at least the last six months before completion,  I was starting work on the book at 5 am, working for a couple of hours and then going off to my day job at Bilbrough’s plus working at least one full day each weekend.  It put quite a strain on my family to whom, I would like to say sorry, to  my daughters who are with us here tonight   and  their mother, who is unable to be with us tonight. 

Anyway it was eventually done 2 years late and I delivered the manuscript to the publishers, who I assumed would send it to a High Court judge or some other eminent lawyer to pronounce on its worth.  However just 6 weeks later, I got a phone call from Ted, the production man at Lloyds asking if I could read the proofs.  Incidentally that production time was much quicker than any subsequent edition.   [show first edition]

The second edition  was published in 1990, by which time I had left Bilbrough’s and become a director of Ravenscroft Shipping, a firm of Baltic Exchange shipbrokers and London Agents for various South American ship owners and Chartering interests and a Principal on the Baltic Exchange, and this second edition together with the third edition of Time Charters, published the previous year and the first edition of The Ratification of Maritime Comventions  also published in 1990, formed the basis of the Lloyd’s Shipping Law series, which currently  stands at 28 titles.

In the early 1990s, I was asked by Texaco to analyse and report on the demurrage due in respect of 250 voyages in respect of which they were in dispute with the  US Internal Revenue Service and for which Texaco bought me my first computer.  That was my introduction to the world of computers.  A couple of weeks before I was due to give evidence in Houston. Texaco settled their dispute.

In September 1993, I was approached by Mr Zhang Yong Jian, the Deputy Managing Director of Dalian Ocean Shipping Co, part of the Cosco Group, who asked my permission to translate my book, Laytime and Demurrage into Chinese, a request I passed on the publishers.   They gave their approval to this project and this is the results of his labours in the familiar Lloyds Shipping law colours.  I must say that producing a Chinese translation must have been an even more daunting task than writing the book in the first place.  Laytime and Demurrage is, as far as I know, the only major English law text book to be translated into Chinese.

The Maritime Law Newsletter was first published in 1979 and the very first edition contained a relatively short report of a laytime and demurrage arbitration case.  Mike Daiches has taken  that concept of reporting awards in an anonymous form  and developed it with such awards now being reported in a numbered series.  In 2015, 19 such cases were reported, of which I was a member of the tribunal in 10 of them, and drafted 9 of those awards.

Laytime and Demurrage was the first text book to include reports of Arbitration awards as published in the Newsletter, and did so from the first edition. All the major text books have now adopted this practice.

I am sometimes asked if the majority of my arbitration cases are laytime and demurrage cases.  The answer is that normally only a small proportion are such cases.  I mentioned the Texaco cases earlier.  However,  I and two senior LMAA colleagues are about to publish an award relating to a COA and the demurrage due in respect of 81 disputed voyages plus sums due under the Asbatankvoy form of charter ice clause. Although every voyage charter has an ice clause relating to delays due to ice,  there are remarkably few cases relating to such delays and the last reported case was in the 1920s, almost 100 years ago. The total sum  in issue in this case is around USD 4.5, million.most of which is demurrage

London Arbitration is sometimes criticised as slow and costly. I would only mention that earlier this year, as sole arbitrator, I published two awards for unpaid freight, in each case approaching USD 1.5 million.  Each case took just 22 days from presentation of Claims submissions to publication of the award and the cost of each was only £2,500 less than that payable under the Small Claims procedure.  I contrast that with a challenge in the High Court made to an award I published last year. Submissions relating to the application for leave to appeal were completed in August, but it took until the end of February this year, over six months, for the High Court to reject the application, which they did in a half page email stating that the application was unjustified.

I will ask Mike Daiches  if he wishes to add anything and after he has done so, I would invite you all to enjoy yourselves and circulate widely, and talk not  just to those you already  know, but talk to those both younger and older than yourself.  You will certainly make new acquaintances and possibly new friends.

Thank you very much.

ILO NEWSLETTER- REFORMA ENERGETICA Y MARINA MERCANTE

Shipping & Transport - Mexico

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Effects of energy reform on maritime industry

Contributed by M & L Estudio Legal

September 09 2015

After a decades-long monopoly over the production and commercialisation of oil and electricity by state entities PEMEX and the Federal Electricity Commission, the private sector can now participate in these activities as a result of the comprehensive energy reform implemented in 2014.

One of the main concerns in respect of oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico relates to the maritime equipment used to extract and develop these resources, especially those situated in deep waters. Mexico does not have the specialised vessels and platforms available in other countries – such as Brazil, which in 2008 began to overhaul its state oil company, Petrobras. In order to increase Petrobras's maritime capabilities, a $240 million special guaranty fund was established as collateral for loans provided for the acquisition of marine equipment in Brazilian yards. A memorandum of understanding was also signed between Petrobras and Noble Corporation for the acquisition of semi-submersible platforms amounting to $4 billion.

Neither the Mexican government nor Pemex has announced effective measures to support investment in the marine equipment that will be needed to implement the energy reform effectively. It appears that the government expects this issue to be addressed through associations between national and foreign shipowners.

The Mexican Shipowners Association has noted that in order to meet the maritime requirements under the energy reform, an initial investment of at least $3 billion during the first three years will be needed to acquire high-specification vessels, tankers and offshore supply ships.

According to the Maritime Law, cabotage services are restricted to Mexican-flagged vessels. In the absence of Mexican vessels (or where they are very limited), foreign-flagged vessels may participate in such activities under certain strict conditions and for limited periods (for further details please see "New maritime regulations published").

Many observers are of the view that the energy reform will be the ultimate driver for the promotion, growth and consolidation of the Mexican merchant marine. However, this will likely be facilitated mainly through associations or joint ventures between Mexican shipping companies and foreign partners interested in participating in the Mexican oil industry (on the basis set out in the energy reform), following the necessary evaluation of the conditions affecting global oil prices.

For further information on this topic please contact Juan Carlos Merodio at M & L Estudio Legal by telephone (+52 55 5207 1187) or email (j.merodio@ml-estudiolegal.com.mx). The M & L Estudio Legal website can be accessed at www.ml-estudiolegal.com.mx.

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APERTURA OFICINAS ENSENADA

Cargo preference for foreign-flagged vessels?

Shipping & Transport - Mexico

Cargo preference for foreign-flagged vessels?

Contributed by M & L Estudio Legal June 24 2015

The Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Congress) recently passed the Law for the Development of the Merchant Marine and Naval Industry.

The new law aims to provide special instruments to promote and incentivise the Mexican merchant marine industry, especially for vessels engaged in international trade and shipyards operating within the Mexican territory.

Author

Juan Carlos Merodio Lopez

􏰂

The most important measures proposed in the legislative initiative are as follows:

• 􏰀  Creation of the Committee for the Support of the Merchant Marine and Naval Industry 􏰁 the main objective of this committee will be to participate in drafting public policy instruments. It will be composed of one representative each from the treasury, naval, economy, transport and communications, fisheries and energy ministries. The marine associations may act as advisers to the committee. 
• 􏰀  Creation of the Folio Especial for vessels engaged in international trade 􏰁 Mexican shipowners will be authorised to register foreign-flagged vessels with the maritime authority in a special category of the Maritime Public Registry, referred to as the 'Folio Especial'. Once registered, foreign-flagged vessels will be subject to the same treatment as Mexican-flagged vessels in order to obtain the benefits introduced by the new law, especially with regard to cargo preference (discussed below). To register a foreign-flagged vessel in the Folio Especial, the shipowner must comply with certain requirements, the most important of which is a commitment that the vessel will have at least 50% Mexican crew within three years. 
• 􏰀  Cargo preference for Mexican vessels and foreign-flagged vessels under the Folio Especial 􏰁 of special importance in this bill is the stipulation that Mexican vessels and foreign-flagged vessels registered in the Folio Especial will have preference in respect of all import and export cargo of the Mexican government, whether the central administration or governmental organs. Of course, if this legislation is finally passed and becomes effective, it will provide tremendous advantages and incentives. Other benefits granted to Mexican vessels in international trade will equally be granted to foreign-flagged vessels registered in the Folio Especial. 
• 􏰀  Mexican naval industry 􏰁 shipyards and other installations within the Mexican territory may benefit from special treatment or preference in building, repair and maintenance work required by Mexican private shipowners and entities of the Mexican government. For such purposes, Mexican shipyards will first need to undergo a special registration process ('Constancia de Preferencia') before the maritime authority.
  As mentioned, the new law was approved by the Chamber of Deputies. It has now been turned over to the Senate for review, debate and approval. If finally approved by the Senate, it will become binding law.
  For further information on this topic please contact Juan Carlos Merodio at M & L Estudio Legal by telephone (+52 55 5207 1187) or email (j.merodio@ml-estudiolegal.com.mx). The M & L Estudio Legal website can be accessed at www.ml-estudiolegal.com.mx.
  The materials contained on this website are for general information purposes only and are subject to the disclaimer.
  ILO is a premium online legal update service for major companies and law firms worldwide. In-house corporate counsel and other users of legal services, as well as law firm partners, qualify for a free subscription. Register at www.iloinfo.com. 

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