ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a civil law analysis of, first, the legal nature and a categorisation of shipping derivatives, and secondly the risks created by such derivatives. Shipping derivatives were designed by financiers as a tool of risk management, whose function was precisely to hedge some of the risks suffered by ship owners. The trade of shipping derivatives creates different types of risks which may affect the parties thereto. Different classifications of shipping derivatives can be suggested either on the basis of market criteria or on purely legal criteria. The most obvious market classification of a derivative is one based on the nature of the underlying asset goods, commodities, spreads between two values, other derivatives. Several strategies are available to counter the risk of the parties to shipping derivatives. Requiring pre-contractual information is a first element that modestly contributes to the limitation of risks.
