The Gothenburg Colloquium
The 2024 CMI Colloquium was held from 22-24 June at the Clarion Post Hotel in the historic city of Gothenburg, Sweden, founded by King Gustavus Adolphus by royal charter in 1621, primarily as a trading colony, and home today of the Port of Gothenburg, the largest port in the Nordic countries.
Our host, the Swedish Maritime Law Association, led by its President Paula Backden, worked closely with the CMI Secretariat to put in place a fast-paced programme based on the theme “100 Years of Unifying Carriage of Goods by Sea”.
Following the formal opening session with welcome speeches by Ann Fenech, President of the CMI, Paula Backden and Arsenio Dominguez, IMO Secretary-General, Professor Michael Sturley, the occupant of the Fannie Coplin Regents Chair, University of Texas, delivered the 2024 Berlingieri lecture aptly entitled “The Hague Rules at 100”, in which he traced the political and maritime law background to the Rules as well as early attempts to formulate uniform rules which culminated ultimately in the adoption of the Hague Rules in 1924 and their subsequent implementation in Britain and the United States of America.
The lecture was followed by a lively discussion on developments since the adoption of the Rules, including the viability and future of the Rotterdam Rules.
Over the remaining two days, parallel sessions were held on a number of topics of current interest, including mobile offshore renewable units; MASS; decarbonisation; Lex Maritima; Marine war insurance; the impact of European Law on the maritime sector; and the LOF contract. The current situation in the Red Sea was also a “hot” topic for discussion from a variety of perspectives, one session being devoted to the difficulties in responding to an incident; problems arising out of fraudulent registrations; the “dark fleet”; and the effect of sanctions on world trade. A second session, co-ordinated by yCMI, discussed issues of force majeure and limitation of liability; the impact of the crisis on global trade; protection of the right of innocent passage and an English law perspective on shipping during the Red Sea crisis.
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The Colloquium was attended by 269 delegates representing 43 NMLAs, including from Bangladesh, newly admitted to the ranks of CMI at the 2023 Assembly in Montreal.
The Colloquium was not however all about work, as delegates were treated on Friday evening (following a meeting of the CMI Assembly) to an excursion by boat to the 17th century Alvsborg Fortress, followed by dinner filled with Swedish delights. The gala dinner, held this year on Thursday evening, was given ten out of ten and a gold star by those fortunate enough to attend. The theme of the dinner, suggested by Paula Backden, and enthusiastically adopted by the Colloquium Management Committee, was “The Roaring Twenties—the Great Gatsby” which enabled the women present (and a few brave men) to adopt the fashions of the day and to relive this rambunctious period if only for an evening. The band joined in the frivolities and gave all the dinner guests an impromptu lesson in how to Charleston!
The success of the Colloquium was due in no small measure to the efforts of the Organising Committee and in this regard special thanks are due to Paula and her hard-working team of assistants Mikaela Tamm and Ida Dahlborg, both on the Board of the Swedish MLA, as well as to Joachim Wallenfyr and Jessica Jonsson from PS Occasion. Ann Fenech assisted by Lawrence Teh (CMI Administrator), Frank Stevens (CMI Treasurer), Rosalie Balkin (CMI Secretary-General) and Evelien Peeters (CMI Head Office Manager) made up the CMI Secretariat members of the Organising Committee.
The Welcome Speeches of the President of the CMI, Ann Fenech and Swedish MLA President, Paula Backden can be found here below.
President Welcome Speech Gothenburg
CMI Welcome Speech President Swedish MLA
This Note has been prepared by Secretary General of the CMI, Rosalie Balkin.