The Maritime Law Association of the United States - the first hundred years

THE origins of the Maritime Law Association of the United States are closely linked with the foundation of the Comite Maritime International. That organisation was originally a committee of the International Law Association, hence the name 'Comite' or 'committee'. It became independent in 1897. The Belgian Maritime Law Association, which had been formed in 1896, immediately became a constituent member. The French association followed in the same year, and the German association joined in 1898.

In 1899, the US association was founded, for the express purpose, among others, of participating 'as a constituent member of the Comite Maritime International...in efforts to bring about a greater harmony in the shipping laws, regulations and practice of different nations.' To fulfill this purpose, the MLA promptly became a constituent member of the CMI, and has taken an active role in its work ever since.

Three other national maritime law associations - those of Italy, Norway, and Denmark - became constituent members in the same year as the MLA (1899). Those of Sweden, Japan, Argentina, the UK, and Greece soon followed. There are now some 55 national maritime law associations in the CMI.

The original membership of the US MLA consisted of 106 lawyers and judges. The first president was Robert Dewey Benedict, then editor of Benedict on Admiralty. He served until 1907, when Judge Addison Brown succeeded him. Judge Charles Merrill Hough, one of the greatest American admiralty judges, served from 1919 to 1927, presumably by demand. The practice whereby a president serves for only two one-year terms originated in 1936-1938, when Roger Englar was president. It has been followed ever since.

Before the jet age, the president was always from New York, since by far the largest number of members were New Yorkers. Apparently, there were no vice-presidents until 1936, but the practice soon developed of electing a first vice-president from outside New York and a second vice-president from New York. The first vice-presidency was more or less honorary, while the second vice-president was expected to be ready to take over if the president became incapacitated or was for any reason unavailable.

The duties of a secretary and those of a treasurer were performed by a single secretary-treasurer until 1945, when the work was divided between two individuals., and in 1958 the post of membership secretary was created, to perform duties formerly carried out by a membership committee and its chairman.

The first major projects of the CMI culminated in the Salvage Convention of 1910, and the Collision Convention of the same year. The Salvage Convention was supported by the MLA, and ratified by the US. It was implemented by the Salvage Act of 1912. However, the Collision Convention, the principal feature of which was the proportional fault rule, was opposed by a majority of MLA members voting, and was never ratified by the United States. The principal reason given for the opposition was that ratification would abolish the 'innocent cargo rule', whereby, in a both-to-blame collision case, cargo interests may recover in full from the non-carrying vessel, although the carrying vessel is usually shielded from liability by the 'error in navigation' exception of an applicable statute such as the US Carriage of Goods Act (COGSA) or of an applicable charter party.

Perhaps the MLA's principal contribution to the work of the CMI was its recommendation, in 1912, that the CMI consider the formulation of rules governing the carriage of goods under ocean bills of lading. The MLA recommendation was approved by the CMI, but consideration of the subject in depth was interrupted by the outbreak of World War One in 1914, and the work was not resumed in earnest until 1921.

In that year, at a meeting held in The Hague, the International Law Association approved a set of rules formulated by the CMI. These were based on the US Harter Act of 1893, but with several significant differences. These rules, which became known as the Hague Rules, were originally intended for incorporation in bills of lading, in the same way that the York-Antwerp General Average Rules are incorporated. However, it was soon decided to adopt them as a binding international convention.

The rules were amended by the CMI at a meeting in London in 1922, and promptly submitted to the 'Diplomatic Conference on Maritime Law', which had been established by the Belgian government in 1905. The rules were adopted as an international convention in 1924, and have been in force ever since.

Until transcontinental commercial air traffic became available, attendance at MLA meetings by members practising in West Coast, Gulf, and Great Lakes ports was of course difficult and time-consuming. However, the commercial airliner changed all this, and more and more members from outside New York were also able to attend meetings. There was no longer any good reason why the president had to be a New Yorker, and Benjamin Yancey of New Orleans was elected president in 1966. Not long after that, it became customary to alternate the presidency between a New Yorker and a non-New Yorker.

The airliner also made restricting MLA meetings to New York unacceptable. Accordingly, in 1965, a poll of the members was taken, calling for their replies to two questions: (i) Whether they would favour an out-of-New York meeting, and (ii) If so, what would be their first choice of place for one?

The overwhelming majority voted in favour of an out-of-New York meeting. A large majority voted to hold one in New Orleans, and the second choice was San Francisco. The first out-of-New York meeting was therefore held in New Orleans in 1967, while Benjamin Yancey was president, and the second was held in San Francisco in 1970, when John McHose was president. Thereafter, it became customary to have the fall meeting in even-numbered years at a resort, starting in Bermuda in 1972, while Edwin Carey was president. This was subsequently shifted to odd-numbered years in 1989.

The US government's record on ratifying CMI - drafted conventions has been poor

Members of the MLA, notably Charles Haight Sr (grandfather of Judge Charles Haight of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York), were instrumental in the drafting of The Hague Rules, in persuading congress to enact the Carriage of Goods Act of 1936, which is identical to the Hague Rules Convention in almost all respects, and in obtaining the senate's advice and consent to ratification of the convention in 1937.

At its Stockholm conference in 1963, the CMI drafted several amendments to the Hague Rules Convention, particularly in respect to limits of liability for cargo loss and damage to goods carried under ocean bills of lading. The conference ended on a Friday afternoon, and the next morning the delegates embarked on a weekend cruise, arranged by the Swedish Maritime Law Association, to Visby on the Island of Gotland, an important member of the Hanseatic League in medieval times. When the ship arrived at Visby, the delegates gathered in the lounge and formally approved the draft amendments formulated in Stockholm, which have since been known as the Visby Amendments or Visby Rules.

The draft amendments, with minor changes, were adopted as a protocol to the Hague Rules at a diplomatic conference held at Brussels in 1968. The protocol entered into force in 1977. The MLA urged its adoption but the US government has failed to ratify it.

Unfortunately, despite MLA support for most of the conventions drafted by the CMI, the US government's record for ratifying them has been poor. In addition to the Salvage Convention of 1910 and the Hague Rules Convention of 1924, the only convention drafted by the CMI which the United States has ratified is the Salvage Convention of 1989.

The MLA has had much greater success with domestic legislation it has sponsored. Such legislation includes the Maritime Lien Act of 1910, the Death on the High Seas Act of 1920, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act 1976, the 1960 Amendment to the Suits in Admiralty Act 1946, and the Statute of 1980, setting a uniform time limit (three years) for suits to recover for maritime personal injury and wrongful death.

The MLA also played a leading role in the merger of the former General Admiralty Rules of the Supreme Court and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which became effective in 1966. The association was also instrumental in defending the time-honoured admiralty arrest and attachment procedures from constitutional attack.

The Maritime Law Association of the United States has weathered the storms of its first century well, and has accomplished much to improve the maritime law and its administration. It is hoped that its good work will continue with equal success into the new millennium.