At the heart of conflict
London remains the centre of some service aspects of the global maritime industry, such as the arbitration market, according to research by the specialised law firm HFW.
London, a global centre for maritime business, has some rather unique problems at the moment. The classic issues dominating the industry – artificial intelligence, cybercrime, the introduction of global low-sulphur regulations for ships’ fuel in the year 2020 – are not at the top of the industry’s agenda in the city – Brexit is. Now the London-based law firm Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) has analysed in detail the factors underlying London’s opportunities to remain the go-to centre for maritime arbitration once Brexit actually takes place.
Clean bill of health for London
HFW’s research focused on 13 maritime arbitration institutions from all around the world. Singapore handled around 140 arbitrations in 2017, in institutions including SIAC, SCMA, LMAA and ICC. Hong Kong, in turn, saw its HKIAC, LMAA and HKMAG bodies handle more than 100 maritime arbitration cases. Dubai and Paris together handled less than 20 cases. Scandinavia’s Nordic Offshore and Maritime Arbitration Association was only established in November 2017; it was statistically irrelevant for the purposes of this report. HFW assumes, however, that if will develop strongly in the future.
London stood out with more than 1,500 maritime arbitration cases in 2017, in contrast. The conclusion HFW has come to is that the institutions in the UK’s capital handled more than 80% of all maritime arbitration cases brought globally in the period under review.
According to HFW one highly relevant parameter underlying these fin- dings is the fact that, after local law, English law is the most commonly-chosen law regime in maritime arbitration cases worldwide, and across all sectors, including maritime arbitration. English law was the applicable law in 85% of all LCIA arbitrations in 2017.
We can conclude from these pronouncements that London will continue to dominate the market for maritime arbitration – even though Brexit may then result in a gradual shift of such arbitration cases to more institutions from the rest of the world.
