10th OST Colloquium

The Institute of Maritime Law hosted the 10th OST Colloquium last week. Partners from the University of Oslo’s Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law and Tulane University’s Maritime Law Center gathered alongside us in the National Oceanography Centre on 26-27 September.

The theme this year was “Blockchain and other issues surrounding automation of commerce” which attracted a wide variety of presentations. The Southampton team was made up of Professor James Davey, Professor Paul Todd and Dr Johanna Hjalmarsson who were joined by Dr. Luis-Daniel Ibáñez from the Web and Internet Science Group (School of Electronics and Computer Science). The Institute’s Director Professor Andrew Serdy, who was to have chaired a session, instead stepped in at the last minute to deliver a talk filling a gap caused by a late withdrawal, and Robert Veal presided in his place. There was also valuable input from Dr Alexandros Ntovas and Mr Richard Coles, who also chaired a session.

The colloquium was a resounding success, both in enabling newer participants from all three universities to get to know one another better, and in promoting comparative discussion. The 11th OST Colloquium will be held at a venue nominated by Tulane Law School in early October 2020.