SPANISH ASSOCIATION OF MARITIME LAW/ ASOCIACION ESPAÑOLA DE DERECHO MARÍTIMO

Briefing of the activities of the Second Semester 2025

Along the second semester of 2025 the Executive Committee of the SMLA/AEDM has devoted much time and efforts to prepare the CMI Colloquium that will take place in Valencia in March/April 2027, and to the digitalization project that includes an updated website, a new App tested during our National Congress in June and enhanced LinkedIn tips. The digitalization will be fully operative in 2025.

The SMLA participated in the virtual General Assembly of the CMI held on October 8, remarking the effort made by the CMI’s ExCO towards transparency.

Apart from those management matters, the SMLA/AEDM was honoured to organize the first joint colloquium with the Spanish Navy (the “Armada”) which took place in the Navy’s Headquarters in Madrid on the 9th of October 2025, implementing the Protocol of Agreement signed in 2024 between both maritime institutions.

The opening speeches were addressed by the Vice-Admiral Benigno González-Aller, President of the Central Admiralty Court of the Navy, and Mrs. Mercedes Duch, First Vice-president of the SMLA.

The meeting analysed two relevant topics of mutual interest:

Salvage under Admiralty Law in Spain and the jurisdiction of the Maritime Central Court of the Navy in salvage and maritime findings, in which the Coronel Miguel Alia, Julio López Quiroga (Avante Abogados) and the Teniente Coronal Mrs. Manuela Gea explained with detail the law, case law and experience after eleven years of application of our Maritime Navigation Law 14/2014.
The second part of the gathering was devoted to Submarine Infrastructures. Rear-Admiral Miguel Cuartero and Prof. Rafael García (Pablo de Olavide University, Seville) explained both the legal status, the hybrid threats and the preventative measures needed, referring to actual cases, including dark fleets being used to hack submarine cables, pipelines and other essential submarine infrastructures, concluding that there is an urgent need to implement legal and practical protection measures.

The conferences ended with an explanation by Captain Jesús Viñas of the ARMADA 2050 Strategy, which includes relevant investments in the Navy’s fleet and technology developments and stressed the importance of the human factor.

The closing speech was given by the Admiral Second Chief of the Estado Mayor of the Navy, Gonzalo Sanz, followed by a nice cocktail offered by the Navy to all the attendants and a private visit to the Naval Museum ( https://armada.defensa.gob.es/ArmadaPortal/page/Portal/ArmadaEspannola/cienciaorgano/prefLang-es/01cienciamuseo ), led by its Director Captain Juan Escrigas. The Naval Museum of Madrid gives the visitor a complete view of the incredible Naval History of Spain and the Real Armada since the medieval times to present times.

A family photo of the lecturers and chiefs of the Navy and of the SMLA in the great stairs of the Navy Headquarters

The year was closed, as usual, by our Christmas Lecture and cocktail which toke place in the magnificent palace of the Madrid Notarial College (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa-Palacio_de_Don_Juan_Manuel_González-Longoria ), with which the SMLA/AEDM signed another protocol of agreement a decade ago.

The session was chaired by the Deputy Dean of the Notarial College, Eduardo Hijas and the President of the AEDM, Carlos López-Quiroga and the lecture’s subject was “Europeanism and miscegenation in the politics of the Habsburgs. Protagonism of the Woman”, given by Dr. Marí Dolores Higueras, writer, first archaeologist-diver of the Navy, former Technical Manager of the Naval Museum (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/María_Dolores_Higueras ). Dr. Higueras briefed the brilliant mixing of cultures, laws protecting the natives and investments made by the Kingdom of Spain in its American Provinces (never colonies) during the realms of Charles and Philip II (town planning, hospitals, schools, universities, cathedrals, agriculture, keeping native languages, and the role that the women had, concluding that there is nothing to be ashamed of or any reason to apologize, when one of the biggest human shared cultures was born during the first globalization.

Dr. Higueras during her inspiring speech

The year was closed with a fraternity cocktail offered by the SMLA/AEDM wishing all our members, all the Spanish and international marine communities Merry Christmas and a happy 2026.