ABSTRACT
Under the chairmanship of Stuart Hetherington, who also presided over the Comite Maritime International (CMI) International Sub-Committee and the CMI International Working Group and acted as draughtsman of the CMI Draft Convention, an entire day of this conference was devoted to the question of places of refuge. It is worth recalling in this respect that even the legally non-binding the International Maritime Organization Guidelines were only adopted fifteen years after legal doctrine had insisted on their necessity, and that the CMI Draft Convention itself took seven years of preparatory work. In conformity with a fixed rule of international law, once the CMI Draft Convention has assumed the status of an international treaty, it will take precedence over national legislation. A qualification of the central provisions of the CMI Draft Convention as an attempt at codification of existing customary law is, first and foremost, justified given the purpose, context and content of the text.
