Students attending the LLM in International Shipping Law programme in Greece, and Shipping Professionals from all spectrums of the shipping market had the opportunity to attend a Protection and Indemnity Clubs Workshop organized by the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, QMUL and the Hellenic Management Centre on Saturday, 11 March 2017, at HMC Premises in Piraeus. The workshop was coordinated academically by Dr Alexandros Ntovas, Director of the International Shipping Law Programme (Piraeus, Greece). It also featured two sessions led by two guest speakers - eminent practitioners in the Greek shipping market, who covered the practical part of the workshop: Ms Dorothea Ioannou, Managing Director, SCB (Hellas) Inc. and Global Business Development Director, from the American Steamship Owners Mutual Protection and Indemnity Association, Inc., who presented on Collisions P&I cover, FDD and the interplay of Hull RDC, and Mr Andrew Dyer, Partner at Hill Dickinson, who addressed Salvage liability for Clubs, Direct Action issues, and LOUs/LOIs.
The workshop served as an intellectual platform to communicate current practical experience from leading practitioners in matters highly related to P&I Clubs. It examined the operation of P&I Clubs as mutual insurance associations and to this end their vital role to the existence and running of the international shipping community and trade. It covered their history, development and structure, their basic rules of cover and the provision of security, as well as the legal concepts underlying their operation. It additionally examined the various risks Clubs insure against, their financial operation, the International Group of Protection and Indemnity Clubs (including its structure, cover and importance), and how these associations relate to other forms of insurance. The workshop also put emphasis on ‘wet’ shipping law issues featuring a critical insight into the legal role of P&I Clubs in relation to collisions and salvage. The workshop was part of the academic curriculum of the LLM in International Shipping Law (Piraeus, Greece), of CCLS in Greece.