{"id":21,"date":"2026-01-16T16:39:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2026-01-31T11:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:03:13","slug":"preparation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/?page_id=21","title":{"rendered":"Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Preparation<\/h2>\n\n\n
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The project to compile The CMI Lex Maritima was launched in 2014 in an article by Professor Eric Van Hooydonk published in The Journal of International Maritime Law.<\/em> It established that a belief in the existence of the lex maritima was long-standing and widespread, but that it had little practical use because the principles of the lex maritima had never been identified and formulated. The contribution mentioned was, in turn, the result of preparing a new Shipping Code for Belgium. As part of this process, a suggestion had already been made in 2011 that the general principles of maritime law should be recognised by statute as an additional source of law. The arguments presented in the aforementioned article were used to persuade the Comit\u00e9 Maritime International to establish an international working group to prepare a compilation of the lex maritima. The aim was to have the document endorsed by the CMI, which duly occurred in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The project was supported by successive CMI Presidents Stuart Hetherington (under whose leadership it was approved), Christopher Davis, and Ann Fenech (who supported the final approval) and by Vice-Presidents John O\u2019Connor and Alexander von Ziegler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Working Group (IWG) on the Restatement of the Lex Maritima established by the CMI has prepared the compilation of the lex maritima in a series of steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the approval of The CMI Lex Maritima 2025 in Tokyo, the formal composition of the IWG was as follows: Professor Eric Van Hooydonk (Belgium), Chair; Professor Jes\u00fas Casas Robla (Spain), Rapporteur; Professor Eduardo Adragna (Argentina); Aybek Ahmedov (Russia); Professor Kerim Atamer (Turkey); Werner Braun Rizk (Brazil); Javier Franco (Colombia); Professor Tomotaka Fujita (Japan); Andrea La Mattina (Italy); Luiz Roberto Leven Siano (Brazil); Professor Filippo Lorenzon (UK\/Italy); Professor Andreas Maurer (Germany); Bernardo Melo Graf (Mexico); Mi\u0161o Mudri\u0107 (Croatia); Gustavo Omana Par\u00e9s (Venezuela); Massimiliano Rimaboschi (Italy); Professor Francis Rose (UK); Professor Frank Smeele (the Netherlands); Professor Michael Sturley (USA); Professor Lijun Zhao (UK\/China).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The research, drafting of provisions and commentaries and management of the work were handled by Professor Eric Van Hooydonk. Professor Jes\u00fas Casas Robla of Spain, the IWG Rapporteur, provided enthusiastic collaboration and important support, including with the practical organisation and decision-making process within CMI. Thanks to numerous discussions, the text was refined and enriched, and approved by the national specialists participating in the working group. Progress reports were presented at successive public CMI events (New York 2016, Mexico City 2019, Antwerp 2022, Montreal 2023). In 2024, a complete draft was presented at a CMI colloquium in Gothenburg. The draft was then submitted to the 53 national maritime law associations affiliated with CMI for commentary. Using the comments received, additional comparative law research by the chairman, and the input from the final IWG discussions, a new draft was presented at the 2025 CMI Conference in Tokyo. After due consideration and a few final adjustments, the definitive text was approved by the CMI Assembly on 17 May 2025. This was followed by a process of editorial finalisation. The \u2018official\u2019 CMI Lex Maritima was published on the CMI website<\/a> on 17 November 2025. You can also find the document and its translations on this page of the present website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photos below give an impression of the numerous and intensive discussions in the International Working Group and during the closing Conference in Tokyo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Work during IWG meetings and discussions (2014-2025)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Work during the CMI Conference in Tokyo (2025)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAll in all, our assessment of the Lex Maritima is that it is a very positive cultural contribution by the CMI to international maritime law, and we are confident that it will serve as a guide in the various functions mentioned above for a much broader framework than the York-Antwerp Rules, whose successful acceptance and use is a golden milestone in the history of the CMI.\u201d – Professor and Maritime Arbitrator Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Alc\u00e1ntara Gonz\u00e1lez, Past President of the Spanish Maritime Law<\/em> Association<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The project to compile The CMI Lex Maritima was launched in 2014 in an article by Professor Eric Van Hooydonk published in The Journal of International Maritime Law. It established that a belief in the existence of the lex maritima was long-standing and widespread, but that it had little practical use because the principles of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-no-title","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexmaritima.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}