On Wednesday 16 November, The Honourable Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma GBM QC SC delivered the 2016 Cambridge Private Law Centre Allen & Overy Annual Law Lecture entitled "What Have Ships Ever Done for You? The Impact of Maritime Law".
Geoffrey Ma used his lecture to explore the enormous influence that shipping law has had on general commercial jurisprudence, noting that its most significant contributions had inevitably required the courts to address the difficult balance between the need for legal certainty and the drive for just results. Within this framework, his lecture addressed some of the more complex issues in commercial law, including the characterisation of contractual terms, especially terms operating as conditions; the limits of privity of contact, and its practical impact in maritime contexts where complex interlinked contracts are common; and the perennial difficulties in assessing remedies, focusing on the leading decisions in The Golden Victory and The Achilleas.
A transcript of the lecture is available to download.
The Cambridge Allen & Overy Lecture is an annual address delivered by a guest of the Cambridge Private Law Centre, and the event is sponsored by Allen & Overy.
A gallery of photographs from the event is available on Flickr:
More information about this lecture, including other recorded formats and a transcript is available from the Private Law Centre website.
