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2018 International Maritime Seminar for Judges Opens in Abuja
The Nigerian capital, Abuja, is playing host to the 2018 edition of the annual International Maritime Seminar for Judges on Tuesday, July 3, 2018. The three-day seminar, which is the 15th in the series of such gatherings, is a collaboration between the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and the National Judicial Institute (NJI) aimed at bringing the nation’s judges, lawyers, practitioners and other stakeholders together for the purpose of enriching their knowledge about current trends and future projections in maritime jurisprudence. At the end of the seminar, it is expected that participants would be better equipped to deal with the challenges of interpreting and applying international maritime laws in the settlement of shipping and maritime related disputes.
The seminar is slated to consider salient topics such as
- Introduction to Maritime Law;
- Applicability of International Treaties to Nigerian Laws;
- Rights of a Cargo Owner at the Insolvency of the Carrier: The Hanin Shipping Experience;
- The Draft Convention Recognition of Foreign Judicial Sale of Ships: The Nigerian Position;
- Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea: Interpretation and Economic Implication;
- An Overview of the Proposed Liability Regime for Inland Carriage of Goods (Roads, Rail and Waterways).
In the run up to the seminar, the Executive Secretary of the Shippers Council, Barrister Hassan Bello disclosed in an interview that it was convened to fill the knowledge gap among judicial workers and other stakeholders – especially in the Federal High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court – on matters of international trade and admiralty law.
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Given the fact that admiralty – or maritime – law was not taught in Nigerian universities until recently (at the postgraduate level), Bello said, seminars like this therefore fill a sensitive knowledge gap, a gap which his organization, the Shippers Council, noticed back in 1995, and commenced training in Admiralty or Maritime Law, with remarkable results since then, not just in capacity-building among its participants, but also influencing the formulation of government policies such as the Cabotage Law and the Cabotage Policy. Thanks to the content of the seminar, judgments from Nigerian judges are wholistic, dynamic, and acknowledged internationally – an example being the manner in which the Shippers Council handled a recent complaint by the European Union about the wanton arrest of EU-flagged ships, and its negative impact on trade. After the topic was introduced in the 2017 seminar, such wanton arrest of ships is now a thing of the past.
The 2018 seminar is being chaired by former Head of State, Chief Ernest Shonekan, GCFR. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter N. Onnoghen, GCON, is the Chief Guest of Honour, while the minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi serves as the Chief Host. Other invited guests included the Justices of the Supreme Court, Justices of the Court of Appeal nationwide, Justices of the Federal and State High Courts, Attorneys-General, maritime law practitioners, shipping companies, legal practitioners of public and private companies, freight forwarders, transport operators and other stakeholders in the maritime and shipping industries in Nigeria and beyond.
According to NEWSWIRE’s correspondent in Abuja, the 2018 seminar was preceded (on the previous evening) by a well-attended cocktail party in the cavernous interiors of the Supreme Court building in Abuja. It was graced by Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki, former and serving members of the national assembly such as Sen. Ita Enang, presidential adviser on national matters, and other important government dignitaries. The cocktail party was an occasion for Justices, Judges, other judicial personnel and their friends to dine, wine, network among old and new acquaintances alike, as they anticipated the following two full days of discussion, learning and the cross-pollination of ideas on ways of taking Nigeria’s maritime jurisprudence to the next level.
See photos below:
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