The decision in Adyard is significant because it is the first reported case in which land-based construction law principles have been applied in the context of a shipbuilding contract. There is also helpful comment on design obligations and on causation.

The Commercial Court has considered a further case on whether a ship was off-hire whilst held by pirates.

Glencore had entered into a sale contract to sell the goods to Aavanti who, in turn, had on-sold to Agritrading.

Where a contract becomes unworkable or unprofitable because economic or other conditions have changed, one or other party may not fulfil some of its obligations under the contract or may even try to walk away from the contract entirely.

We write further to our sanctions updates and specifically our update on Libyan sanctions of 24 August 2011. In light of the developing situation in Libya, as of 2 September 2011 the Council of the European Union has significantly eased the sanctions in place against Libya by lifting its asset freeze on 28 Libyan entities.

In the recent case of B v S, the court considered the nature and effect of Scott v Avery clauses, which provide that an arbitration award is a condition precedent to the right to bring any court action.

Is momentum growing for the wider adoption of electronic bills of lading? Is BIMCO's new electronic bills of lading clause for charterparties a big step forward?

In a recent case, the Court of Appeal had to determine when the claimant's cause of action against the defendant solicitor arose in order to ascertain when the six year limitation period for a negligence claim commenced.

This article addresses how a proposed new UAE commercial companies law will adopt stricter corporate governance requirements for businesses operating in the UAE and how this might impact upon the perception and uptake of management liability insurance in the region.

The Commercial Court has indicated when a guarantee might give rise to a primary liability arising independently and upon demand, as opposed to a secondary liability where the guarantor's liability mirrors the liability of the debtor.

In this update, we set out the latest developments regarding the EU sanctions against Iran.

In this case, the Supreme Court had to decide whether NML, a vulture fund, was entitled to enforce a New York judgment ordering Argentina to make payment of the principal and interest due under sovereign bonds on which Argentina had defaulted in 2003.

The Arbitration Act 1996 contains powers for the English courts to make orders where the matter is urgent and the arbitration tribunal has not yet been fully appointed.

This arbitration concerned owners' claim for loss of time due to delay in obtaining a berth at the port of discharge.

In this case, the Commercial Court looked at the parties’ long-standing chartering arrangements and at the way bills of lading were issued.

The New York Court of Appeals held on 4 June 2009 by a close 4-3 majority that courts in New York have the power to order banks to turn over assets held on behalf of their customers – including those held outside of New York – to creditors with court judgments or arbitration awards converted into judgments.

Sucden, a futures and options broker, was one of a number of brokers acting on behalf of Fluxo-Cane, a company trading in physical sugar and also sugar derivatives on New York’s ICE Exchange, a futures and options market.

Cargo liquefaction and its consequences for safe navigation remain an issue of great importance to ship-owners, charterers and insurers.

"The ultimate aim of interpreting a provision in a contract, especially a commercial contract, is to determine what the parties meant by the language used, which involves ascertaining what a reasonable person would have understood the parties to have meant"

Is a party, who served a notice to complete making the time for completion of the essence of the sale contract, and then, mistakenly, treated the contract as at an end prior to the expiry of that notice itself in repudiatory breach thereby entitling the other party to terminate the contract?