Maritime expert explains ‘Rotterdam Rules’ in Tetley Lecture

Eight years after the United Nations General Assembly adopted a treaty harmonizing the guidelines for shipping goods around the world, it still hasn’t gone into effect because it needs to be approved by more countries.

Internationally known attorney Alexander von Ziegler, who received a master of laws from Tulane in 1984, helped write that treaty, known as the Rotterdam Rules. He’ll share his expertise on Wednesday (April 6) at Tulane Law School’s William Tetley Memorial Maritime Law Lecture in the presentation “Carriage of Goods by Sea and the Underlying Sales Contract.” The lecture takes place at 5:30 p.m. in the Wendell H. Gauthier Appellate Moot Court Room 110 in Weinmann Hall on the law school campus, with a reception to follow. The event is open to the public.

Von Ziegler is a professor of international trade law at the University of Zurich and a partner at Schellenberg Wittmer, a 140-lawyer business law firm with offices in Zurich and Geneva. Von Ziegler has served as secretary general of the International Union of Marine Insurance and secretary general to the Comité Maritime International. The Rotterdam Rules, he argues, are a better solution than regional or national regulations because maritime transport is “inherently international and global.” Three of the needed 20 nations have ratified the convention. The United States signed the document but hasn’t yet ratified it.

"... Maritime transport is “inherently international and global.”

Alexander von Ziegler

Tulane Maritime Law Center’s annual public lecture is named in honor of the late William Tetley, a longtime professor at Montreal’s McGill University who also taught a mini-course at Tulane in 1984-98 and remained an avid friend of the law school. In 2011, he endowed the lecture seriesthat bears his name.
 

Tetley’s career included 36 years teaching at McGill and 18 years practicing commercial and maritime law. He died in 2014 at age 87.

Linda P. Campbell is Tulane Law School’s director of communications.