Now it its second edition, The Law of Yachts and Yachting is a comprehensive treatise on the law relating to yachts and provides its readers with a thorough analysis of maritime law as relevant to the superyacht sector.
It was first published in 2012 but every legal textbook starts to become out of date the moment it has been published and there comes a point when it becomes appropriate to produce a new edition.
Interestingly, hits by i-law subscribers continue in high numbers as researchers at law firms and universities tend to access textbooks increasingly on-line but
After five years and with hard copy sales falling to a trickle, the publishers have decided a second edition was warranted
Written by a team of leading yachting practitioners and researchers, it covers the legal issues arising during the life of a yacht. The book is written for the legal practitioner, yacht-broker and manager concerned with the operation of professionally crewed yachts including financing, registration, chartering, insurance, compliance and casualty management.
Since the First Edition was published quite a lot has changed:
The MLC has come into force, resulting in substantial changes to the crew employment and regulatory chapters. LY3 and the PYC have since been updated and consolidated into the REG Yacht Code which does not of course come into effect until January 2019.
Two new editions of the MYBA Charter Agreement have been published since 2012 and the Yacht Chartering chapter now discusses to the latest 2017 edition a copy of which appears in the appendices. There have been numerous changes in UK and EU legislation, which have been dealt with in other chapters.
There have been during recent years a surprising number of High Court decisions relating to superyachts, for example; Swallowfields Ltd v Monaco Yachting and Technologies SAM and Anor (2014) a dispute about a yacht construction agreement, Moran v Pisarov (2016) relating to entitlement to brokers commission, and Hertenstein v Hill Dickinson (2014) involving negligence in the handling of an “as is” S&P transaction. In addition to new reported cases, references to new and updated textbooks have been included throughout.
The work is jointly authored by Richard Coles and Filippo Lorenzon.
Lorenzon is Professor of Maritime and Commercial Law in the School of Law at the University of Southampton. He is qualified as an Avvocato in Italy and as a Solicitor in England and Wales and is a Member of the Italian and British Maritime Law Associations, the European Maritime Law Association (EMLO) and the International Bar Association (IBA). He is also a consultant with Campbell Johnston Clark in London.
Richard Coles is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Maritime Law and a Consultant to Gateley Plc, a national commercial law firm.