AIM:
Mediation is a mechanism that promotes a self-composition of interests from the several parties (public or private) involved. It aims therefore at a greater change of behaviour and of governance standards than the one that could be prompted by the intervention of Courts (even arbitral Courts). In the project’s case these aims are directed specifically to the resolution of maritime disputes.
Maritime disputes are of great diversity and can span from contractual to extracontractual issues, as well as from commercial and civil disputes to ones relating to public international law and European Union law.
Maritime disputes are of great complexity given the fact that:
- They may involve the application of different laws, since most are of international nature – different locations, different parties from diverse areas of the world and do not equate fully (or even at all) to the application of the law of the pavilion.
- They may imply the application or consideration of several professional, corporate, ethical and behavioural rules, given the fact that there is a rapidly grown abundance of internal rules and protocols as well as safety management procedures and audit practices.
- They may be relevant, at the same time, for different stakeholders (shipping companies; cruise companies, seafarers), but also for the wider public and citizens, since several maritime issues are related to public and common interests, such as environmental interests.
We aim to explore the usage of mediation in maritime complex and multi-party and multi-jurisdictional disputes or even two-parties' jurisdictions purely between private parties or involving public interest and the respect of international law.
The project objectives are the development of an oriented research and knowledge on maritime uses and disputes. The fact that the Sea is a wide area in which several interests and projects interact, sometimes pointing out in different directions, shows that knowledge and dissemination of knowledge on maritime issues is tantamount to its dimension and importance as a vital life support system. The project aims to address this lack of knowledge, by performing a research taxonomy that gives visibility to the main conflict situations at Sea or related to the Sea, and give proper responses, by the way of mediation, In addition, the project intends to develop courses and training tools to help students and professionals to introduce a mediation “kit” into their competences and promoting, therefore, an environment and culture of peaceful and equitable dispute resolution into their future or actual work in maritime issues.
TEAM AND PUBLIC:
A group composed of lawyers, mediators and organizational experts will address the complexity and plurality of actual and potential maritime disputes and will present their findings in a way that can be widely understood and communicated to students and professionals.
The introduction of Mediation in maritime affairs and the proposed courses, training activities and traineeships will develop competences in areas where they have been absent. The qualification of students and professionals in maritime mediation will fill a gap that we can also find nowadays in mediation.
The end purpose is to provide awareness to this pacification and good-practices tool to create or to contribute to the creation of a mediators with specialized competencies in maritime disputes and qualified to act at an international and at a European level, that can be called upon whenever those disputes arise.