The 10th International Conference will be held in Piraeus and its subject is:
“Protecting maritime operators in a changing regulatory and technological environment”
Under that heading, the subject that has been chosen is extremely timely and synthetic and allows the study of issues with particular theoretical and practical significance and shall be divided into five sections: the first will focus on the new approach moving from “the protection of the maritime creditors” (interestingly, that was the subject of the very first Conference of 1992) to the protection of maritime entrepreneurship (i.e. economic analysis of modern shipowning, new forms of funding, commercial war and trade restrictions); the second will deal with the organizational changes in the shipping industry; the third one will focus on the new risks faced by shipping operators, such as trade sanctions against States and affecting shipping, IMO requirements intended to reduce Sulphur oxides emissions from ships, liabilities relating to the bunkers’ delivery etc. The fourth section will be dedicated to the legal issues resulting from the interaction between shipping and environmental regulations on one side, and shipping and technology on the other side: questions relating – inter alia - to the protection of personal data, the cyber risks and liabilities, the regime of autonomous vessels, climate change impacts (CV & C), will be discussed in this context. Finally, the last section will “revisit” the traditional legal tools of protection (limitation of liability and constitution of funds, arrest of ships etc), based on a comparative reading of modern case law in several maritime countries.