Richard Cooper Memorial Lecture

The TC Beirne School of Law and the Federal Court of Australia, invite you to the 2024 Richard Cooper Memorial Lecture. The lecture will be held in person in Brisbane's CBD while simultaneously live-streamed for those out of state.

 

Lecture topic: Terminating bareboat and demise charters: is possession nine-tenths of the law?

There are conflicting decisions on whether a shipowner has to take physical possession of a ship to make termination of a bareboat or demise charter effective. The BARECON 2001 and 2017 forms of bareboat or demise charter expressly provide for the owner to terminate the charterparty without taking actual physical possession of the ship. Two decisions of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia have held that the owner can give an effective notice terminating a demise charter without physically taking possession of the ship. But in The Chem Orchid, a single judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore held that as a matter of public policy, a demise charter remains on foot irrespective of service of a notice of termination on the charterer, unless and until the owner takes physical possession of a ship. Obviously, if this is right, if termination is to occur while the ship is at sea, the owner will have to mount a major logistic operation to put a boarding party on the ship. Commercial and practical reality may or may not have a role to play in resolving this conflict. The address will explore the law and the facts about how the owner can terminate a demise charterparty.

 

About the speaker

The Honourable Steven Rares KC is a mediator, arbitrator, and adjunct professor of law at the University of New South Wales with extensive experience in commercial, maritime, private and public international law issues. Steven served as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia from 2006 to 2023, also judging in the Supreme Courts of the Australian Capital Territory and Norfolk Island, delivering over 1200 judgments. He qualified as a mediator at Harvard Law School in 2022 and uses the Harvard mediation model when possible. In 2023, he joined the Resolution Institute, London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA), and Comité Maritime International. In 2024, he became a fellow of the Australian Centre for Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) and a member of the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitrators.

 

Event program

5:30-6:00pm: Registration and canapés on arrival (in-person only)

6:00-7:00pm [AEST]: Lecture address (online and in-person)

7:00-7:30pm: Canapé reception (in-person only)