ABSTRACT

A central feature of the work of the Commercial Court for more than a century has been the determination of shipping disputes: disputes relating to charterparties and bills of lading, the carriage of goods and passengers by sea, collisions, salvage, and international trade. Shipping litigation may take a variety of forms. The Pilot Scheme, if successful and ultimately implemented, may result in a fundamental shift to the conduct of disclosure in shipping litigation. Shipping disputes equally conform to such patterns and many disputes will involve the disclosure of such documents from such sources. Lawyers are surely coming to grips with the complications associated with providing disclosure of Electronic Documents, whose very nature are changing faster today than they did in the past. Many shipping disputes are determined on the basis of the review and disclosure of paper documents and email exchanges.