The 2025 Colloquium organised by the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL) will deal with digitisation in transport law and related sectors. As ever there will be deep sophisticated analysis from legal, industry, and academic experts. The Colloquium will be held, as usual, at Swansea University. And this year we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of our Institute and our 20th Colloquium.

We are grateful to Informa Law from Routledge for sponsoring this event.

PROGRAMME

Digitalisation is likely to be responsible for big and unpredictable changes in the conclusion and performance of carriage contracts, whether by sea, air, or land. We are taking this opportunity to consider seriously how far legal rules mostly developed in the latter half of the last century are likely to remain apposite given the changes in practice promoted by technology. We also intend to comment on the legal position of parties operating in related sectors such as insurance, not to mention liability issues concerning new players that digitisation introduces, such as providers of digital platforms.

As ever, the Colloquium convenes a forum of expert speakers, chairpersons and delegates, with the object of subjecting the law to informed debate and critical analysis.

The programme will include the following:

Delivery in the digital age
Electronic bills of lading
Smart containers
Electronic payments and documents
Digital transformation of supply chains
Cyber risk and its impact on carriage of goods contracts
Cyber risks and insurance position
Digitalisation and multimodal transport
Digitalisation and air carriage contracts
Autonomous shipping and the legal issues emerging (jurisdiction and insurance)
Impact of digitalisation in arbitration and dispute resolution
Legal position of service providers
Impact of Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 on private international law

Chairpersons and Speakers will include:

Professor Simon Baughen (IISTL, Swansea University)
Pietro Benintendi (Legal Counsel, Luftansa Cargo, Frankfurt )
Luci Carey (Lecturer, University of Aberdeen)
Professor Xingguo Cao (Professor, Dalian Maritime University, PR China)
James Clanchy (FCI Arb, Full Member LMAA)
Paul Dean (HFW, Global Head of Shipping)
Peter MacDonald Eggers KC (7 King’s Bench Walk, London)
Lucy England (Partner, Fox Williams, London)
Michael J Harakis (Counsel and Arbitrator, Triskelion Chambers, Limassol, Cyprus)
Neil Henderson (Senior Executive, Gard AS)
Filip Koscielecki (Senior Lawyer, Gard AS)
Professor George Leloudas (IISTL, Swansea University)
Ben Lynch KC (Fountain Court, London)
Dr Aygȕn Mammadzada (IISTL, Swansea University)
Gabriella Mifsud (Associate, Clyde & Co, London)
Inês Afonso Mousinho (Associate, Clyde & Co, London)
Craig Neame (Chief Investment & Legal Officer, Uniserve Group, London)
Dr Frank Stevens (Associate Professor, Erasmus School of Law, Rotterdam)
Professor Barış Soyer (Director, IISTL, Swansea University)
Professor Andrew Tettenborn (IISTL, Swansea University)
Tom Walters (Partner, HFW, London)
Shihui Yu (Lecturer in Maritime Law, Dalian Maritime University, P R China)
Dr Jingbo Zhang (Senior Lecturer, Aston University)

International Colloquium on Transport Law in the Digital Age