The Law of Ship Mortgages

This fully updated and comprehensive 3rd edition of The Law of Ship Mortgages provides readers with a practical, commercially based and definitive guide to the English law of ship mortgages. The authors, being seasoned practitioners, bring their extensive experience to bear on a number of difficult and developing areas of the law, such as: mortgagees’ duties, liability to charterers, the conflict of laws, work-outs, restructurings and cross-border insolvency.

The 3rd edition includes new chapters on pre-delivery security, security over shares and on the increasingly important topic of ship leasing as a method of finance. It is written against the background of, and has regard to, ever-increasing sanctions affecting shipping and ship finance as well as the continued regulatory and industry-driven push towards reduction of emissions (IMO 2020 and IMO 2050).

Written primarily with practitioners in mind, The Law of Ship Mortgages will continue to be extremely useful to legal professionals, especially in common law jurisdictions, involved in international ship finance or ship mortgage enforcement. It will also be a valuable resource for postgraduate students and academics, especially those with an interest in shipping law or the law of personal property more generally.

David Osborne recently retired as a partner in Watson Farley & Williams LLP after a career of more than 40 years as an asset finance lawyer (covering both secured lending and leasing), primarily in the shipping and offshore energy sectors. He has written extensively on the subject in legal and industry periodicals and has served on two International Working Groups of the Comité Maritime International (CMI).

Charles Buss is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution Group of Watson Farley & Williams LLP. He specialises in banking and maritime litigation and arbitration and has extensive experience advising mortgagees and financial lessors in security enforcements, restructurings and insolvencies. He also regularly acts for ship owners and charterers in relation to dry shipping disputes under charterparties, shipbuilding contracts, ship sale and purchase contracts and marine insurance policies.

Joanne Champkins is Knowledge Counsel in the Dispute Resolution Group of Watson Farley & Williams LLP. She has more than 20 years’ experience in litigation and arbitration, with extensive expertise in the maritime sector, in particular marine insurance, dry shipping, enforcement and complex offshore construction disputes.