100th Anniversary of the birth of ETL-founder Robert Wijffels

In 2026 we commemorate the 100th anniversary of Robert Wijffels (°1926 – † 2010). Maître Wijffels was a prominent Belgian lawyer and an internationally recognized expert in maritime and transport law.

In 1965, he founded the scholarly journal European Transport Law (ETL) in Antwerp, Belgium. The journal focuses on transport law decisions and articles across Europe and is published in multiple languages including English, Dutch, French, German and Spanish.

Following his death in 2010, a dedicated editorial team has continued to publish the European Transport Law journal in his spirit. Today ETL is still going strong with a growing number of subscribers in some 30 different countries around the globe.

A Liber Amicorum was published in his honour in 2001, reflecting his standing in the international legal community.

Today, 17 February 2026, the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships, also known as the Beijing Convention, enters into force.

This is the culmination of a process that started in 2007 when the Comité Maritime International (CMI) drew the shipping community’s attention to problems arising around the world from the failure in recognising the free and unencumbered title given to purchasers of vessels in judicial sales. UNCITRAL picked up the gauntlet and turned the CMI’s Beijing Draft into an international convention, which was adopted by a resolution of the United Nations on 7 December 2022.

The CMI and European Transport Law (ETL) issued a booklet (https://comitemaritime.org/cmi-and-etl-announce-the-joint-publication-of-the-judicial-sales-bible/) containing not only the text of the Convention in all 6 authentic language versions, but also a commentary co-authored by experts who have actively contributed to the genesis of the Convention within UNCITRAL Working Group VI (Judicial Sale of Ships), as well as the Explanatory Note prepared by the UNCITRAL Secretariat and reflecting the deliberations of UNCITRAL Working Group VI (Judicial Sale of Ships). This ‘bible’ on the Beijing Convention concludes with contributions by a number of professional organisations, representing amongst others the ship owning community, shipping financiers, flag states and the judiciary, expressing their support for the Convention and the need for States to sign and ratify it.

More on www.comitemaritime.org and www.europeantransportlaw.com.

The Fondation François Génicot awarded its three-yearly prize for a meritorious publication in the area of maritime and commercial law to Prof. Dr. Eric Van Hooydonk for his impressive trilogy ‘De Maritieme Canon van Vlaanderen’, an encyclopaedic overview of the maritime history of Flanders from prehistory to the present.

The award and the money prize associated with it were solemnly handed over to Prof. Van Hooydonk by the Fondation’s Guy Van Doosselaere and Henri Voet at a function organised by the Belgian Maritime Law Association on 23October 2025.

Next to guest professor at the Maritime Institute of Ghent University and attorney-at-law in Antwerp, Eric Van Hooydonk is co-editor of ETL.

https://www.fondationfrancoisgenicot.be/

https://www.bvz-abdm.be

International Maritime Law and Practice:

Comparative Law in Context

Časlav PEJOVIĆ

Informa Law from Routledge

(Oxford/New York 2025)

Reviewed  by Marko PAVLIHA[1]

It is my great privilege and pleasure to warmly recommend Professor Časlav Pejović’s new book, International Maritime Law and Practice – Comparative Law in Context, published recently by Informa Law from Routledge. This comprehensive monograph is the culmination of over 25 years of the author’s experience teaching International Maritime Law in the LLM program at the Faculty of Law, Kyushu University, Japan. It is intended for a broad readership, including legal professionals in shipping companies and law firms, international shipping organizations, traders, maritime officers (such as shipmasters), as well as scholars and students of maritime law.

Professor Pejović is a widely recognized expert in the international maritime law community and currently holds the title of Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Law, Kyushu University. He earned his law degree (BA) from the University of Montenegro, holds LL.M. degrees from the University of Belgrade (Serbia) and Kyoto University (Japan), and obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Zagreb (Croatia). His academic and research interests span maritime law, comparative law, transnational commercial law, international business law, foreign investment law, and corporate governance. He is an active member of several international academic and professional associations, including the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL), the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law (IACCL), and the Japanese Association of Maritime Law. He is also an honorary member of the Croatian Maritime Law Association.

Professor Pejović is the co-editor (with Gerald McAlinn) of Law and Development in Asia (Routledge, 2012), and the author of several books, including Transport Documents: International Law and Practice (Informa Law, 2020), as well as the volume under review. His articles have been published in leading international journals, with some translated into other languages. He has served as an arbitrator at the Thai Arbitration Institute (TAI), the Tokyo Maritime Arbitration Commission (TOMAC), and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitration.

In his latest book, Professor Pejović adopts a distinctive and engaging approach to maritime law – one reminiscent of the late, legendary Professor William Tetley (1927–2014) of McGill University, Faculty of Law in Montreal (Canada) – by integrating its historical foundations with comparative legal analysis. Each chapter begins by tracing the historical development of the concept in question before analyzing its contemporary application across jurisdictions. The comparative dimension is robust, covering major legal systems – primarily English law – while also incorporating legislation and case law from various jurisdictions such as the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, the European Union, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. This approach effectively highlights broader distinctions between common law and civil law traditions. In addition, all relevant international maritime conventions are duly considered.

The book is organized into 15 thematic chapters across 594 pages, each addressing a core area of maritime law: Introduction and History, Legal Status of the Ship, Shipbuilding Contracts, Ship Sale Contracts, Ship Mortgages and Maritime Liens, Judicial Sale, Arrest of the Ship, Carriage of Goods by Sea, Charterparties, Carriage of Passengers, Maritime Collision, Oil Pollution, Salvage, Limitation of Shipowner’s Liability, and Marine Insurance. Additional sections include a Preface, List of Abbreviations, Table of Cases, Table of Legislation, Bibliography, and Index.

Is there anything to criticize about the book, aside from the fact that it is physically quite heavy J – and might benefit from being split into two volumes? Not really. However, the author might consider two enhancements for a potential second edition and future updates. First, in addition to the bibliography of cited books (pages 577–581), it would be helpful to include a list of journal articles and papers referenced in the text. Second, it would be valuable to highlight key authorities (e.g., scholars and practitioners) and their contributions from all jurisdictions discussed – such as Slovenia – providing readers with additional context and avenues for further research.

In conclusion, I fully endorse the assessment of our distinguished Italian colleague, Professor Massimiliano Musi of the University of Bologna, who noted somewhere that this book stands out for its clarity of presentation, systematic rigor, and depth of argumentation. It makes a significant contribution to scholarly discourse in the field. The comparative perspective, employed with great effectiveness to illuminate both similarities and differences between legal systems, provides the reader with an almost holistic understanding of contemporary lex maritima. As such, it is exceptionally well-suited for academic training and, perhaps even more importantly, serves as an invaluable resource for professionals navigating the ever-evolving landscape of maritime regulation and jurisprudence.

[1] D.C.L. (McGill), Dr. h.c. (IMLI), Professor of Commercial, Transport and Insurance Law, Head of Law Department, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transportation, Slovenia; Visiting Fellow and Governor, IMO IMLI, Malta.

European Transport Law is now present on LinkedIn. Follow our official page via the following link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/etl-european-transport-law/

De Fondation François Genicot Stichting werd opgericht op 17 november 1928 ter gelegenheid van de 80 e verjaardag van François Genicot, dispacheur te Antwerpen.

Het doel van de stichting is het bevorderen van alle studies inzake maritieme en commerciële aangelegenheden, onder meer door het uitreiken van een prijs. 

De stichting streeft ernaar om driejaarlijks een geldprijs toe te kennen aan de auteur van een werk dat in de 3 voorgaande jaren werd gepubliceerd en dat handelt over maritiem- of handelsrecht, met een voorkeur voor werken die “averij grosse” of “maritieme verzekeringen” behandelen.

Alle info over deze stichting is terug te vinden op: https://www.fondationfrancoisgenicot.be/

CMR – Übereinkommen über den Beförderungsvertrag im internationalen Strassengüterverkehr (Fourth Edition), Deutscher Fachverlag, Fachmedien Recht und Wirtschaft, 2025

Thume / Hartenstein (Ed.)

This is the fourth edition of “Thume zur CMR” and the first after Karl-Heinz Thume passed away in May 2022. Having assisted the late Dr. Thume as from 2021 with the early preparations of this fourth  edition, Dr. Olaf Hartenstein took the editing for his account and this with the expert support of Dr. Jürgen Temme, Dr. Jens-Berghe Riemer, Prof. Dr. Beate Czerwenka, Anna Falk, Florian Jacobs, Jan-Ole Lorenzen and Dr. Niels Witt as well as the authors of various country reports.

Indeed, the new edition of this well-respected standard work on the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR), is the fruit of the pen of experienced lawyers and professors, each of which are experts in the field of transport law and more specifically the international carriage of goods by road. In addition to the country reports that featured in the previous edition covering case law and literature in Austria, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia, the new book now includes country reports from Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Türkiye and Hungary. The commentary on the Convention takes into account case law and literature from recent years and thus the entire practical development in the area of international carriage of goods by road.

In the three decades since publication of its first edition, “Thume zur CMR” has become one of the most consulted and quoted works on the CMR, not only in Germany and other German-speaking jurisdictions, but also far beyond. After publication of the third edition, more than 10 years ago now, important new developments took place, including the accession to the CMR of Afghanistan, Oman and Pakistan, the accession of another six states to the 1978 Protocol and the Additional Protocol on e-CMR which will become mandatory for all EU countries from 2026.

Covering these new developments, this fourth edition reconfirms and assures the position of “Thume zur CMR” as one of the leading international reference works on CMR for academia and practitioners in the, in the meantime fifty-five, CMR countries and beyond.

Peter Laurijssen FICS

Antwerp

Peter LAURIJSSEN

Chief editor

It is said that there is always a reason to celebrate and that any reason to celebrate is a good one.

As to the centenary of the Hague Rules, celebrations could have started as early as 2021 since their text owes much to the rules that were adopted on 2 September 1921 at the 30th Conference of the International Law Association held in The Hague. Celebrations can obviously be held in 2024 since the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law relating to Bills of Lading, as the Hague Rules are officially named, was signed in Brussels on 25 August 1924.

However, whilst there are plenty of opportunities to crack open the champagne, one may ask oneself whether there is good reason to be cheerful.

Read more : https://www.europeantransportlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Cracking-open-the-champagne-for-100-years-of-Hague-Rules.pdf

Global Regulation of Air Navigation: Key Focus Areas

Ruwantissa Abeyratne

Ethics Press, 2024

One of the projects which the IWG on Judicial Sales embarked on following the adoption of the Convention was to put together a manual on the Convention containing a detailed article on the Convention, the Convention itself in 6 languages, the UNCITRAL explanatory note and various testimonials. This is intended to be used by civil administrators in their efforts in convincing their governments to sign the convention.

At the 2nd signing ceremony in Malta last week, copies were made available to all the attending Ambassadors accredited to Malta.

It was a great pleasure to be able to present the President of Malta with a copy of this manual edited by Peter Laurijssen who also attended the signing ceremony.

from left to right: Edmund Sweetman, CMI secretary general Rosalie Balkin, Bernardo Mendes-Vianna, CMI president Ann Fenech and Peter Laurijssen

At its General Assembly on Friday 24^th May 2024 in Gothenburg, the Comité Maritime International (CMI), elected 3 new ExCo members. ETL editor Peter Laurijssen is proud to be one of them.

The Comité Maritime International is an international maritime law organization. Formed in 1897 in Antwerp, the CMI aims to unify maritime law internationally. It is the first and oldest operating international organization dedicated to maritime law and the second most important maritime organization after the IMO. CMI is the guardian of the York-Antwerp Rules and the mother of international maritime conventions such as the Collision Convention, Ship Arrest Convention, Limitation Convention, the Hague and Hague Visby Rules and many other instruments of international maritime law including the recent Beijing Convention on the International Effects of the Judicial Sale of Ships.

Peter is Legal Director at Compagnie Maritime Belge in Antwerp, Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, President of the Belgian Maritime Law Association and Editor of European Transport Law.

For subscriptions contact info@europeantransportlaw.com or +32 476694580 or https://www.europeantransportlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Inschrijvingsformulier-IHT.pdf