Court News

The English Commercial Court (the “Court”) has provided helpful clarity on the extent of damages available to a claimant shipowner for the late redelivery of a vessel under a time charter where there is evidence that the owner of the vessel would have been unable to enter into a subsequent charter for the vessel. In such circumstances, only nominal damages will be recoverable, as no actual loss has been suffered.BackgroundHapag-Lloyd AG (the “Charterers”) entered into two materially…

A Greek Ombudsman has recommended disciplinary action against eight coastguard officers for alleged dereliction of duty in one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks off Greece in which hundreds died in 2023.The inquiry is the first to conclude on the circumstances surrounding the shipwreck off the southwestern coastal town of Pylos on June 14, 2023, which sank in plain sight of Greek coastguard authorities with about 750 people on board.The trawler, named Ariana, had left Libya…

A Scottish court has invalidated Britain's approvals for two major North Sea oil and gas projects, delivering a significant victory to environmental groups and raising uncertainty over future fossil fuel developments in the UK.The Court of Session in Edinburgh found that the government had unlawfully granted approval for Shell's Jackdaw gas field and Equinor's Rosebank oil and gas field by failing to consider the emissions generated when the extracted fuels are burned—known as downstream emissions.