2026 Richard Cooper Memorial Lecture

The TC Beirne School of Law and the Federal Court of Australia, invite you to the 2026 Richard Cooper Memorial Lecture. The lecture will be held in person in Brisbane's CBD while simultaneously live-streamed for those out of state.

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Lecture topic: Canberra marooned on shipping reform

In 1924 international agreement was reached on a "Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law relating to Bills of Lading" (known as Regles de la Haye, or the Hague Rules), that had been drafted over many years by the Comite Maritime International (CMI), which was one of the many Brussels Conventions produced by the CMI after its formation in Antwerp in 1897. It received widespread international support. Australia gave effect to the Hague Rules in the Sea Carriage of Goods Act 1924 (Cth). With the coming of container shipping and after inflationary monetary values, it was amended in 1968 by amendments known as the Visby Rules, which Australia did not ratify. By 1978 the international community, especially developing nations, considered the Hague Rules to be far too beneficial to carriers and a new Convention was entered into: the United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea (The Hamburg Rules). Initially Australia embraced that radical regime which was more beneficial to cargo owners. When it failed to be taken up by the major countries that operated fleets of cargo ships, a far-sighted bureaucrat in Canberra formed a Working Group that recommended reform of Australia’s outdated 1924 regime which incorporated provisions of both the Hague and Hague Visby as well as some of the Hamburg Rules. These came into law in the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1991 (Cth). Fearing greater diversity, and therefore lack of uniformity arising internationally, the CMI drafted and UNCITRAL finalised, in 2008, a new document: United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea (The Rotterdam Rules). Despite intense lobbying in Canberra since 2009, the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand has been unsuccessful in obtaining reform in this area. The same applies to other Conventions such as the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks (2007), and the more recent UNCITRAL work: The United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (The Beijing Convention). The address will discuss these failures as well as others, such as the Hazardous and Noxious Substances Convention (Convention 2010), and the lack of reform suggested by the Australian Law Reform Commission on Marine Insurance (Report no 91, 2001).

About the speaker

Stuart Hetherington is a consultant of Colin Biggers & Paisley and Past President of the Comitè Maritime International (CMI). He has practised in the area of maritime law since 1976.

Stuart was the Honorary Secretary of the New South Wales Branch of the Maritime Law Association of Australia (then Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand (MLAANZ)) from 1976 to 1981; he was the Secretary of MLAANZ from 1981 to 1985, Vice-President from 1989 to 1991, and President from 1992 to 1994.

He was appointed an Executive Councillor of the CMI in 2001 and became its President in 2012. His term of office ceased on 9 November 2018 after his second term of three years.

He chaired the CMI International Working Groups that were formed to examine the issues of Places of Refuge and to review the Salvage Convention, and he has led the team that has resulted in the CMI's work on Judicial Sales being taken up by UNCITRAL. He has most recently chaired the CMI Standing Committee on Ratification of the Rotterdam Rules and the International Working Group on UNCITRAL's work on Negotiable Cargo Documents.

Stuart has instructed Counsel in cases, shipping casualties and cargo claims in the Privy Council (Candlewood Navigation Corporation v Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd), the Supreme Court of the United States (Norfolk Southern Railway Company v James N Kirby Pty Ltd), and the High Court (in various cases including Sanko Steamship Co Ltd v Sumitomo Australia Ltd), as well as in marine insurance, and admiralty cases, including the arrest and sale of ships.

Stuart is the author of the first published text on the Admiralty Act 1988 in his Annotated Admiralty Legislation.

He has been listed in all the recognised publications, The Best Lawyers in Australia, Doyle's Guide, the Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Chambers and Partners and Who's Who Legal Transport (2015, 2016. 20107 and 2018).

Event program

• 5:30–6:00pm: Registration and canapés on arrival (in-person only)
• 6:00–7:00pm [AEST]: Lecture address (online and in-person)
• 7:00–7:45pm: Canapé reception (in-person only)