FAR too many shipping conferences take place in anonymous identikit chain hotels across the planet. But one event that doesn’t conform to that stereotype is Shipping and the Law, which takes place annually in Naples, and which celebrated its 10th iteration this year.

Each year the organisers seek out glorious locations from among the city’s hundreds of historic buildings, and have in the past chosen a Renaissance church adorned with Caravaggio frescoes and a former royal palace.

This year was no exception, with the proceedings taking place in a Plantagenet-era baronial hall.

We sent David Osler along to discuss the finer points of maritime law with the assembled ranks of legal eagles and between sessions he managed to gather some useful insights on subjects as diverse as autonomous shipping, Brexit and 2020 sulphur rules.

Featuring in this week’s episode we have Mans Jacobsson, the now-retired former director of the International Oil Pollution Compensation funds, who is not just a trained lawyer, but also worked as a judge prior to taking the IOPC job. Mans had given a presentation on how shipping law is going to have to be rewritten to take account of autonomous vessels and unmanned ships and he talks to David about what happens next.

Tiejha Smyth, a solicitor who now works as deputy director of freight, demurrage and defence at North Group, had words of warning for shipowners who might find themselves in inadvertent non-compliance with IMO sulphur cap in less than three months’ time.

Meanwhile James Leabeater QC brought a continental audience up to speed with Brexit. Whether you are for or against Britain’s departure from the EU, the reassuring news, he tells us, is that there will be little impact on the primacy of English law in shipping contracts.

And finally, Shipping and the Law also features big name speakers from outside the industry, and one of the guests this year was Hamish McRae, one of Britain’s best-known economics journalists. David asked him what impressions he had formed of shipping, and if he had any advice for us.

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