Marius 455: Selected master theses 2015

This issue contains two theses selected among those written by our LLM students who graduated in the autumn 2014: Jolanta Zabityte and Kyle Ritter.

Non-contractual third-party liability: A brief economic analysis
This article evaluates selected Norwegian non-contractual liability norms using the law and economics method of analysis. After introducing the various assumptions about human behaviour utilized, the article models actors respond to liability norms used in the maritime context within Norway, with specific emphasis on strict liability and negligence liability.

The author
Kyle Ritter currently holds the position as Assistant Vice President at Nordea Bank Norge ASA, in the Syndicated Loans department of Shipping Offshore and Oil Services.

The Obligation to Pay Hire in Time Charterparties: The Astra
The article published in MarIus addresses the controversial judgment rendered on 18 April 2013 by Commercial Court’s judge Mr. Justice Flaux in The Astra* and presents an analysis of the legal grounds on which the judge based his conclusion that the obligation to pay hire on time in clause 5 of the NYPE 1946 form is a condition, any breach of which will give rise to a claim for damages for loss of bargain following termination.

This article discusses whether there is room for an opposite conclusion, i.e. that the obligation to pay hire punctually is not a condition, but an intermediate term, which implies that the damages for loss of bargain are available not upon any payment default, but only upon such breach of the obligation to pay hire, which deprives the innocent party from substantially the whole benefit of the contract.

Since this article was written prior to a recent judgment as of 18 March 2015 in Spar Shipping** case, where Commercial Court’s judge Mr. Justice Popplewell reconsidered the issue and declined to follow The Astra, the article has been updated and includes a separate chapter regarding this recent development. The judgment in Spar Shipping, however, is not universally seen as settling the issue and thus the legal discussion, which is presented in the article, is considered to be of an interest for readers.

* Kuwait Rocks Co v AMN Bulkcarriers Inc [2013] EWHC 865 (Comm)

** Spar Shipping AS v Grand China Logistics Holding (Group) Co. Ltd [2015] EWHC 718 (Comm)

The author
Jolanta Zabityte is currently working as associate lawyer at Ramanauskas ir partneriai Law firm in Lithuania with a focus on maritime and transport law. This article was submitted as a thesis while the author was enrolled in the Master of Maritime Law (LLM) program at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law (NIFS), University of Oslo.

8vo, 124 pages, paperback. ISSN 0332-7868