This timely book examines the reform of maritime law under the influence of environmental principles and the effects of these changes in the legal relationships between maritime stakeholders. Providing an integrated assessment of the use of environmental principles in the governance of shipping and maritime law, it argues that normative barriers supported by short term financial interests, the balance of power between states and the technocratic character of the IMO are delaying necessary changes to support sustainable development and thus endanger the marine environment. Offering a complete review of the environmental impacts of shipping, Michael Tsimplis analyses the compatibility of maritime conventions with environmental norms, developing a methodology using publicly available documents of the International Maritime Organisation. He discusses what would be required in terms of governance for sustainability in the maritime sector, proposing a number of ways of removing barriers within a strategy of zero discharges, zero emissions, and zero impact. Scholars and students of maritime and environmental law will find this book's analysis of how environmental principles affect both public and private law aspects of the shipping sector illuminating. It will also be of interest to policy makers and regulators in the maritime and environment sectors looking for an overview of the issues involved in improving environmental performance in shipping. - Regina Asariotis, United

The Rotterdam Rules will be open for signature on September 23, 2009. These Rules represent the most comprehensive overhaul of the law of carriage of goods by sea in more than 50 years. To coincide with the signing ceremony, six members of the Institute of Maritime Law at the University of Southampton have written this book, a detailed commentary on the Rules. The book carefully examines the text of the Rules, all 96 articles of the new Convention, and compares them to the text of the Hague-Visby Rules, the instrument currently covering most bills of lading. The authors have also examined the judgments in cases decided in the English courts under the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971 and the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992, and have indicated whether these cases would be decided differently under the new Rotterdam Rules. This new addition to the Maritime and Transport Law Library series provides practical and rigorous answers to all the questions regarding cargo claims as they come t