CMI General Assembly: June 2023

The CMI held a General Assembly meeting in Montreal starting at 13:30 hours on June 16 at the end of a very successful CMI colloquium. 

The President opened the meeting with a report on her activities over the past year.

The Assembly then heard memorials for two outstanding former member who had passed away.: Dr. Frank Wiswall Jr. of the United States and Prof. Hrvoje Kačić of Croatia.

The Assembly then approved the financial statements and heard reports from the audit committee, on outstanding contributions and on the CMI charitable trust.

The assembly then approved 11 new Titulary members and conferred the title of honorary officers on Stuart Hetherington (President Honoris Causa), on Johanne Gauthier (Vice President Honoris Causa) and on Alexander von Ziegler (Secretary General Honoris Causa).

Thereafter, the Assembly dealt with several issues of concern. Three MLAs were unfortunately expelled form membership in CMI due to long-outstanding unpaid subscriptions: the East Africa Regional MLA, the Israeli MLA and the Senegalese MLA.

On a more positive note, Bangladesh was admitted as a new MLA member.

The Assembly then heard reports from the chairs of International Working Groups and Standing Committees.

The Assembly welcomed the 2022 prize winner: Rosalie Van Dael of New  Zealand. The title of her essay: “Relief in Cross-Border Insolvency and  Maritime Law”

Elections were then held and Rosalie Balkin was elected as Secretary General, Frank Nolan as Executive Councillor and Johannes Grove Nielsen as a member of the CMI Nominating Committee.

The Assembly then conferred the authority on Jean Francois Peeters to fulfil all required formalities and to sign all necessary documents recording these appointments and decisions of the Assembly

A written report from Prof. Miriam Goldby on: UNCITRAL Working Group V1 on Negotiable Multi-Modal Transport Documents was tabled.

A written report from Dr. Vincent Power on: Selected recent developments in European Union Shipping Law was tabled as well.

Following which the Assembly rose at 17:00 hours.

By John O’Connor