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

Guide last updated by Balqees Khan, September 2025.

This guide aims to give a brief introduction to the Library's holdings on Maritime Law. Please consult Library Search 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 use Library Search, 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. You can also search for individual chapters and journal articles.

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 Search 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 follow the links to Library Search for further information and location. Titles are available in both print and electronic formats, unless indicated otherwise on the list below.

Baatz, Y., et al.  The Rotterdam Rules: a practical annotation . 2009 Informa Maritime Law

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 Sweet and Maxwell

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

Cooke, J., et al.  Voyage Charters.  5th ed. 2022 Routledge

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)

Foxton, D.  Scrutton on charterparties and bills of lading.  25th ed. 2024 Sweet and Maxwell (e-book)

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

Goldby, M.  Electronic documents in maritime trade.  2nd ed. 2019 OUP (e-book)

Klein, N., & Parlett, K.  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. 2018 Routledge

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

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

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

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

Schmitthoff, C.  Schmitthoff: the law and practice of international trade.  12th ed. 2012 Sweet and Maxwell

Templeman, M., et al.  Arnould: law of marine insurance and average.  21st ed. 2024 Sweet and Maxwell (e-book)

Tettenborn, A.  Marsden and Gault on collisions at sea.  15th ed. 2021 Sweet and Maxwell

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

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

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

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. Titles are available in both print and electronic formats, unless indicated otherwise on the list below. 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.

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

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 Library Search 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

International Maritime Organisation (IMO)

Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL)  Official blog of the IISTL which is based at Swansea University.

Institute of Maritime Law (based at the University of Southampton)