IMLI goes from strength to strength

IMLI goes from strength to strength

SINCE its inception at the University of Malta in October, 1989, the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI) has trained nearly one hundred and forty five students from seventy different countries. From Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific to its own Mediterranean waters, IMLI now has anchors throughout the worldwide shipping community. The graduates have created a global network of lawyers who can communicate in the same international maritime law language. Whether a vessel is caught up in Haiphong, in Lagos or in Cartagena, there will be an IMLI-trained lawyer nearby from whom assistance can be sought.

IMLI was established by a statute promulgated by the International Maritime Organisation, supported by the government of Malta.

The purpose of IMLI is to train lawyers from developing countries to become specialists in maritime law. The Master of Laws in International Maritime Law course is open to law graduates already working in a maritime field or in a legal department or shipping law firm. It consists of postgraduate training in international maritime law for one academic year, covering shipping law and the law of the sea as well as drafting of maritime legislation. All selected students are required to be nominated and supported by their governments. The aim is for graduates to provide the expertise needed for the implementation of IMO and other maritime conventions into their respective national legal systems.

David Attard, director of IMLI, explains, "The number of admissions is limited due to the intensive nature of the course. And, in line with the IMO strategy for integration of women into maritime activities, up to fifty per cent of admissions are reserved for women."

IMLI graduates have created a global network of lawyers who can communicate in the same international maritime law language.

William O'Neil, secretary-general of IMO says, "It is sometimes forgotten that the main way of IMO achieving its objectives is by developing international conventions, codes and other forms of legislation. Without a firmly established legal system, a government would be unable to implement IMO's measures. As a result, shipping safety and the marine environment would suffer accordingly. Since 1989, IMLI has played a crucial role in this process."

Graduates from IMLI return to their countries and join the maritime administration or other appropriate governmental authority concerned with the development, codification and implementation of maritime law and legislation. Where there is no such expertise in a country, IMLI's graduates provide the initial nucleus. Until now, many developing states had few lawyers with specialised knowledge of maritime law. An inherent part of IMLI's strategy is to provide well-trained lawyers who can enable developing states to review and update their maritime legislation in accordance with sound national policies and the law which is being constantly developed at international level.

The achievements of IMLI graduates are impressive. They not only permeate maritime law at government levels but can also be found in the legal departments of port authorities, shipping companies and organisations in developing countries providing legal advisory services to international trade and shipping concerns. Past students now hold posts of responsibility ranging from the Director-General of the Port and Shipping Organisation in Iran, the Vice-General-Director of the Vietnam Maritime Commercial Stock Bank to the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal in Cameroon.

Throughout the IMLI course, students are introduced to teaching from recognised leaders of the international maritime law world.

IMLI's programme of visiting fellows and lecturers is not just an opportunity to learn from the top names and personalities but also provides students with the chance to forge links and relationships with key people from the global shipping fraternity. This culminates in an annual field trip to London after graduation.

Students and lecturing staff from IMLI are introduced to major shipping institutions such as the International Chamber of Shipping, the Baltic Exchange, Lloyd's of London, Thomas Miller P&I, London solicitors Ince & Co and Shaw & Croft, and the IMO's headquarters. The field trip opens doors for students to see the mechanics of how things work in practice after all the theory of their academic year. And they return home with a broad range of contacts to help them in their future careers.

Training a new generation of Greek lawyers
Georgina Noakes talks to Professor Anthony Antapassis

THE last thing that Anthony Antapassis points out - but the first thing you notice on entering his office - is that there are two certificates of distinction hanging on the wall. But the certificates have nothing to do with the law. They are honours received from his native Greek island, Nisyros, and they hang alongside pictures of the house overlooking the Mediterranean in which Anthony grew up. These are the things that take pride of place in his crowded law office overlooking the Akti Miaouli in Piraeus and about which, if drawn, the professor will talk most passionately.

Adapted and translated into Greek from its Turkish origins, the name Antapassis means ruler of the island. His father was the local doctor and Anthony was born in 1942 during the Italian occupation of the island. His father subsequently supported the effort to liberate Nisyros and played an important role in humanitarian work on the island for many years. Anthony says there are now nearly five thousand emigrants from Nisyros around the world. Anthony's grandfather was one of the first to leave the island and it is recorded that he arrived at Ellis Island, New York, in 1908. He returned to assist with the liberation of Nisyros in 1938.

Anthony left the island in 1954 to go to high school in Pireaus and later to study at the University of Athens, where he obtained a diploma in law in 1964. After that he spent an obligatory two years in the Greek army. Fluent in French and English, Anthony studied commercial and maritime law in Strasbourg, Brussels and London from 1967 to 1971, returning to complete his doctorate at the University of Athens in 1974. His private practice and academic career have always run parallel. He still attends the Greek Supreme Court, but not the courts of first instance or appeal.

He has written numerous books and articles in Greek and French. "I cannot combine lectures and trials," he says, and his caseload for regular clients is managed around his responsibilities as head of maritime law at the University of Athens.

Asked to define a good lawyer, Anthony says it must obviously be a person "informed on legal issues, but also with a good business mind and an aptitude for presenting arguments in a clear and easily understood way."

Maritime law is an optional course at the university, where most students study General Principals of Commercial Law before choosing to specialise.

Traditionally, Greek students have gone to England for post-graduate studies in maritime law at University College London, Southampton or Cardiff. But it is now possible to take post-graduate studies in maritime law in Greece at the universities of Athens and of Thessaloniki and also at the Aegean Institute for the Law of the Sea & Maritime Law on Rhodes island.

The Aegean Institute also runs special vacation courses to increase the legal knowledge of Greek shipping company personnel.

Most students return to take up positions in an Athens law firm, with only a small percentage choosing to work in-house at one of the shipping companies. A masters in maritime law is fast becoming a prerequisite, and the competition that students face to secure a place at one of the well-known Greek maritime law firms is fierce. At Anthony's firm, out of nine assistants, six have a masters in maritime law, and most have direct experience of working in a London or an EC law firm.

It takes a student a minimum of four years to complete a diploma in law at Athens University, with the average student taking four and a half to five years.

They then have to complete eighteen months at a law firm before taking the Greek Bar Association exam.

One of Anthony's aims is to improve the ongoing teaching and training that qualified maritime lawyers are required to do. Special programmes have been designed to include non-maritime lawyers and to embrace transport law in the widest sense of the word. Knowledge of transportation by land, air and sea is increasingly important as goods are sent around the EC and beyond.

These courses are also combined with instruction in insurance law to cover international commerce, arbitration and finance and banking systems.

"There is always a temptation for students to rush their studies in order to start their career," says Anthony, "but it is a question of mentality and taking a long-term view." Anthony thinks the new generation of Greek lawyers is better qualified than his own generation, because they are linguists and have a wide scope of experience around Europe.

Asked to define a good lawyer, Anthony says it must obviously be a person "informed on legal issues, but also with a good business mind and an aptitude for presenting arguments in a clear and easily understood way."

Anthony has recently finalised the programme for the 3rd International Conference of Maritime Law in Greece. This will take place just before Posidonia, from May 27 to 30, and is being organised by the Piraeus Bar Association with the assistance of the Greek Maritime Law Association.

Anthony is chairman of the organising committee, and the theme of the conference is ÔLegal Aspects of Maritime Casualties'. The opening ceremony will be at the Intercontinental Hotel, and the Greek Minister of Justice will attend.

The rest of the conference will take place at The Eugenides Foundation in Singrou Avenue. It will end with a Greek play which will reflect the laws of ancient Athens in the fourth and fifth centuries, when it was forbidden for criminals to set foot on Athenian land. Instead, the prosecuted person stood trial on board a ship, moored offshore. Today, they treat ships with much more respect in Greece.