Maritime Law (including Carriage of Goods by Sea and Marine Insurance): Maritime Law

Guide last updated  November 2023

This guide aims to give a brief introduction to the Library's holdings on Maritime Law. Please consult the Library Catalogue for complete information on current titles and locations. If you require further assistance please contact us.

Monday-Friday 9:00-17:00
Tel (0)20 7862 5790
Email ials@sas.ac.uk

This Subject Guide only lists a selection of Library resources on Maritime Law, Carriage of Goods by Sea and Marine Insurance.  To find additional resources you will need to search the Library Catalogue, which covers the complete holdings of the Library. It is possible to search for books, journals and series of law reports by author, title or keyword. Please note it is not possible to search for individual chapters, journal articles or legislation (e.g. individual Acts or SIs).

IALS Library is mainly open access and readers are able to browse the shelves in the main collection. There are two main exceptions to this:

• Older items (marked RES or Depository on the catalogue record) are kept in the closed basement.
• Key texts for LLM students are often kept in the Short Loan collection.

Please request these at the Library Enquiry Desk.

For more information on understanding the catalogue record and further guidance on the location of materials please refer to our guide Classmarks and the Location of Resources in the Library.

The Library classifies textbooks either by jurisdiction (GO13, GA2 etc.) or according to subject area, examples of which include Comparative Law (SB), Public International Law (SG) and Private International Law/ Conflict of Laws (SH). 

All classmark sections have a FOL section for oversize volumes, which is located on the same floor of the Library.

When you are searching the Library Catalogue for books, please note that only the current edition is held on the open shelves or in the Short Loan collection. IALS has a rich collection of previous editions held in the closed basement and these will display a Depository number on the catalogue. Please request previous editions from the Library Enquiry Desk. 

Common law material is shelved at SJ125.

International material is shelved at SG70.

The following list represents a selection of textbooks on maritime law, carriage of goods by sea and marine insurance. Please check the catalogue records for further information and location. Titles marked as e-books may also be available in print. Access from home requires your IALS library barcode and your  family name.  E books with 'open access' status on the catalogue are available to all users of this guide. 

Baatz, Y. et al. The Rotterdam Rules: a practical annotation 2009   Informa Maritime (e-book)

Baatz, Y. Maritime Law  5th ed. 2021 Routledge (e-book)

Baughen, S. Shipping law 8th ed. 2023  Routledge 

Brice, G. Maritime law of salvage  5th ed. 2011

Chuah, J. Research handbook on maritime law and regulation.  2019 Elgar  (e-book)

Debattista, C & Hornyold-Strickland, F. Debattista on bills of lading in commodities trade 4th ed. 2021 Bloomsbury  (e-book)

Derrington, S. & Turner, J. Law and practice of admiralty matters  2nd ed. 2016 OUP (e-book)

De La Rue, C. Shipping and the environment: Law and practice  3rd ed. 2023 OUP (e-book)

Freestone, D. & Barnes, R. The law of the sea: Progress and prospects 2006 OUP  (e-book)

Gilman, J. et al. Arnould:  law of marine insurance and average 20th ed 2021 S & M  (e-book)

Goldby, M. Electronic documents in maritime trade  2nd ed. 2019

Klein, N. Judging the law of the sea  2022 OUP  (e-book)

Mandaraka-Sheppard, A. Modern maritime law 3rd ed. 2013 Routledge (e-book) 

Meeson, N. Admiralty jurisdiction and practice  5th ed. 2017  Routledge (e-book)

Mitchell, C. & Watterson, F. The world of maritime and commercial law: essays in honour of  Francis Rose  Bloomsbury 2020  (e-book)

Ozdel, M. Commercial maritime law Bloomsbury 2020 (e-book)

Rogers, A. Cases and materials on the carriage of goods by sea  5th ed. Routledge 2020 (e-book)

Rothwell, D. & Stephens, T.  International law of the sea   3rd ed. 2023

Scrutton, T.E. Scrutton on charterparties and bills of lading 24th  ed. 2020 (e-book)

Schmitthoff, C.M. Schmitthoff's export trade 12th ed. 2012

Tettenborn, A. Marsden & Gault on collisions at sea 15th ed. 2021

Thomas, D. Rhidian A new convention for the carriage of goods by sea: the Rotterdam Rules….. 2009

Wilford, M. Time charters 7th ed. 2014 Routledge (e-book)

Wilson, J.F. Carriage of goods by sea 7th ed. 2010

IALS Library holds a selection of current  serial titles on maritime law from many different jurisdictions. These are located on all floors of the Library. Some titles are only in printed volumes while others or available in both formats. For more detailed help, please refer to the guide on Finding journal articles. The following titles focus particularly on maritime law but there may be relevant articles in less specialised journals. A further selection of journals can be accessed via I-Law Maritime Law resources

 

Droit maritime français

Journal of maritime law and commerce

Lloyd's maritime and commercial law quarterly

Loyola maritime law journal

Ocean development and international law: the journal of marine affairs

University of San Francisco maritime law journal

 

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If you are interested in legislation or cases concerning maritime law in specific countries you will need to consult the legislation or law reports for that jurisdiction.

Consult the Library Catalogue to find the general classmark for the country you require. Consult consolidations of legislation, digests or indexes to trace particular acts or cases.

Academic users may also use databases like Lexis/Westlaw to find UK, US, EU or international decisions. For further information please refer to  Law Databases or ask at the Library Enquiry Desk.

You may also find it useful to refer to our guides on finding Legislation and Cases or check to see if we have a Jurisdiction Research Guide for the country you are interested in.

Eagle-i is an internet portal maintained and updated by IALS library staff. It allows you to search for quality web resources on maritime law 

A valuable free source is BAILII, the British and Irish Legal information Institute which is based and maintained at IALS. It provides free access to full text UK judgments and legislation on a wide range of subjects including maritime law and also links to other free World Law databases. Jurisdictions covered in these resources include Commonwealth countries eg. AustLII  (Australia) and CanLII (Canada), France, Germany, Italy, the USA and South Africa.

The following represent a sample of the available quality individual web resources on maritime law:

BIMCO – An NGO involved in the production and revision of maritime contracts

https://www.bimco.org/

International Maritime Organisation (IMO)

https://www.imo.org/