THE DRAFT CONVENTION ON THE INTERNATIONAL EFFECTS OF JUDICIAL SALE OF SHIPS: POSSIBILITIES, PROBLEMS, CONSEQUENCES
February 22, 2022 / 9:00–11:40 a.m. CET (UTC+1)
days
hours
minutes
seconds
Date
February 22, 2022, Tuesday
Time
9:00–11:40 a.m. CET (UTC+1)
Price
FREE
Working languages
Russian and English
Moderator and Speakers
Moderator
Igor Yastrzhembskiy
Igor Yastrzhembskiy specializes in the law of obligation and contract law, bankruptcy issues, land, property, and communal services disputes.

He has more than 15 years of experience in judicial representation in arbitration courts and general jurisdiction courts. He defended the interests of clients in the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, in the Civil Collegium, and in the Economic Disputes Collegium.

Igor is experienced in representation in all arbitration courts of the Moscow Region, including the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District. He has repeatedly represented the interests of administrations of municipal districts of the Moscow Region in arbitration courts.

Igor is recognized as the best lawyer in corporate law and civil law by the Best Lawyers 2021 international rating.

He has published various articles on civil law. He has lectured at the "M-Logos" Legal Institute and at the "Statut" Law School.
Speaker
Ekaterina Salugina-Sorokovaya
Since 2006, she has been working in the Presidential State-Legal Directorate.

In 2014, she was appointed to the position of Adviser to the
President of the Federal Notary Chamber on Legislative Work.

In 2015, she joined the State Corporation Deposit Insurance Agency as Deputy Director
of the Department of Public Relations

In 2016, she took the position of General Director of the International and Comparative
Law Research Center.

In November 2017, she assumed the duties of the Acting Director of the Department
for Financial and Bank Operations and Investment Development of the Ministry of
Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

In February 2018, she was appointed Director of the Department for Financial and
Bank Operations and Investment Development of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

From February 2019 to March 2020, she was Director of the Department of Regulatory Policy of the Government of the Russian Federation.

From April 2020 to April 2021, she served as Director of the Department of
International Law and Cooperation of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
Since April 2021 — General Director of the International and Comparative Law Research Center.

Ph.D. in Law

Speaker
Jose Angelo Estrella-Faria
José Angelo Estrella-Faria is the Principal Legal Officer and Head of the Legislative Branch of the International Trade Law Division, United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (Vienna), which functions as substantive secretariat for the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

From October 1, 2008 to July 31, 2017 he was the Secretary-General of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) and, as such, in charge of supervising all the staff and projects of UNIDROIT, an independent intergovernmental organization devoted to the unification and harmonization of private law worldwide.

Before his appointment to UNIDROIT, Mr. Estrella-Faria had worked at the secretariat of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) from 1996 to 2008. As Secretary to the relevant intergovernmental working groups, he was responsible for UNCITRAL work on privately financed infrastructure projects and electronic commerce. He also supervised the work of Working Group III (Transport Law) between 2005 and 2008.

Mr. Estrella-Faria served at the General Legal Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs, in New York (1992-1996). He had worked before as an attorney in Brazil, specializing in commercial and trade law matters.

He has published various articles and books on legal harmonization, commercial law, and international law. He has lectured at various universities and is a honorary professor of the University of International Business and Economics, China.
Speaker
Henry Hai Li
Dr. & Prof. Henry Hai Li is a practicing shipping lawyer and a part-time or visiting professor of Dalian or Shanghai Maritime University.

He is also a vice-president of the China Maritime Law Association and a Titulary Member of the Comité Maritime International (the CMI).

He was the Chair and now a co-chair of the CMI International Working Group on Judicial Sale of Ships.
Speaker
Dr. Ann Fenech
Ann Fenech heads the marine litigation department and was Managing Partner of the firm from 2008 to 2020.

On qualifying in 1986 she joined Holman Fenwick and Willan in London. She later joined Chaffe McCall Phillips Toler and Sarpy in New Orleans.

At Fenech & Fenech, she created the marine litigation department. She has dealt exclusively with maritime issues for the past 36 years ranging from salvage to charter party disputes and from towage to enforcement of mortgages.

She lectures at the University of Malta and the International Maritime Law Institute. She is the President of the Malta Maritime Law Association, Board Member of the European Maritime Law Organization, and founding Board Member of the Malta Maritime Forum.

She has been on the Executive Council of the Comité Maritime International since 2014 and in 2018 elected Vice President.

She is currently the co-Chair of the CMI IWG on International Recognition of Judicial Sales and CMI Co-Coordinator of the project at UNCITRAL.
Speaker
Dr. Jan-Erik Pötschke
Dr. Jan-Erik Pötschke is a partner in Ahlers & Vogel shipping department in Hamburg and mainly advises shipowners, shipyards, P&I clubs, and ship managers.

He studied law in Trier and Freiburg and did his doctorate on the liability of shipowners according to German and English law.

His international training included activities in maritime law firms in Mumbai and Singapore. He was admitted to the bar in 1997. After working as an in-house counsel for an insurance broker in the field of transport insurance, Dr. Pötschke joined Ahlers & Vogel law firm in 1999 and became a partner in 2002.

He has extensive experience in the field of charter party disputes, ship purchases and sales as well as cargo contract disputes and is part of the Casualty Response Team at Ahlers & Vogel, where he advises shipowners and their insurers with regard to shipping accidents both, at home and abroad.

Memberships:

German Association for International Maritime Law (DVIS);
German Association for Transport Law (DGTR);
German Singaporean Law Association (DSJV);
International Bar Association (IBA).
Speaker
Professor Dr. Alexander von Ziegler
Partner Schellenberg Wittmer AG; Professor University of Zurich; LL.M. in Admiralty (Tulane University); former Secretary General of the International Union of Marine Insurers (IUMI); former Secretary-General and former EXCO member Comité Maritime International (CMI); delegate for Switzerland at UNCITRAL.
Speaker
Alexei Filippov
Alexei Filippov joined the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation in 2005 and heads the Department of Legislation in the Field of Foreign Economic Activity of the Legal Department.

Within his competences, Alexei:

  • Ensures participation of the Russian Federation in activities of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT);
  • Works out and performs a legal review of the draft legal acts and international agreements on Foreign Economic Activity, Customs, International Relations, International Law, Cross-border Cooperation, on the creation and functioning of Special Economic Zones and Territories of Advanced Social and Economic Development in the Russian Federation.

Alexei graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University).

Speaker
Alexander Kunzelmann
Alexander Kunzelmann is a legal officer with the International Trade Law Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, which functions as the substantive secretariat for the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

He currently services UNCITRAL Working Group VI on the judicial sale of ships and Working Group IV on electronic commerce. Alex also oversees the secretariat's exploratory work on legal issues related to the digital economy, which focuses on the use of artificial intelligence in trade, data transactions, and the use of digital assets in trade.

Before joining the United Nations in 2018, Alex worked as a legal adviser with the Attorney-General's Department in Australia on matters relating to constitutional law, administrative law, and public international law.

Prior to that, he worked in private practice and as a legal officer with the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law in the Netherlands where he focused on cross-border judicial cooperation.

Alex holds a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of laws from the Australian National University and a master of laws specializing in international law from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

About
Since 2019, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group VI has been developing a Draft Convention on the Recognition of the Judicial Sale of Ships.

The Convention aims to solve the problem of registering the consequences of a judicial sale conducted in one State in the other State, where the sale is registered.

The Draft establishes that a judicial sale of a ship that confers clean title on the purchaser in one State Party has the effect in every other State Party.

What are the possible consequences of the accession to the Convention for shipowners, their creditors, maritime service providers, and crew? How could the document provisions be implemented into national law? These and other issues will be discussed at the event dedicated to this international instrument.

The ICLRC is an observer in the Working Group VI. Following the event, the ICLRC could analyze and submit to the Working Group VI a position on the issues considered.

Program
9:00–9:05
a.m. CET
9:00–9:05
a.m. CET
Welcome address:
  • Ekaterina Salugina-Sorokovaya — General Director, the ICLRC
9:05–9:15
a.m. CET
9:05–9:15
a.m. CET
Overview of the Draft: Practical implications of the future instrument for
shipowners, banks, shipbuilding companies, crew, and maritime service
providers:
  • Alexander Kunzelman — Legal Officer, International Trade Law Division, United Nations Office of Legal Affairs
9:15–10:05
a.m. CET
9:15–10:05
a.m. CET
First discussion panel:
  • Henry Hai Li — Representative of the People's Republic of China in the UNCITRAL Working Group VI, Senior Partner at Henry & Co Law Firm
    The notice requirements and their functions under the Convention
  • Dr. Jan-Erik Pötschke — Representative (expert) of the Federal Republic of Germany in the UNCITRAL Working Group VI, Partner at Ahlers & Vogel
    Transferability of a certificate of judicial sale: the problem of a subsequent purchaser
10:05–10:15 a.m. CET
10:05–10:15 a.m. CET
Q\A session
10:15–10:30 a.m. CET
10:15–10:30 a.m. CET
Break
10:30–11:20 a.m. CET
10:30–11:20 a.m. CET
Second discussion panel:
  • Igor Yastrzhembskiy — External expert, the ICLRC
    Actions by the registrar upon presentation of a certificate and upon receiving a notice of judicial sale: time limit of the certificate validity, double certificates for the same ship, possible actions of a registrar in the time period between receiving the notice and presentation of the certificate
  • Professor Alexander von Ziegler — Delegate of Switzerland to the UNCITRAL Working Group VI, Partner at Schellenberg Wittmer AG
    Possible ways to challenge the judicial sale or the consequences of such a sale
  • Dr. Ann Fenech — Vice President, Comité Maritime International (CMI), CMI Co-Ordinator for UNCITRAL Working Group VI, Partner, Fenech & Fenech Advocates Malta
    Measures to prevent subsequent arrests
11:20–11:30 a.m. CET
11:20–11:30 a.m. CET
Q\A session
11:30–11:40 a.m. CET
11:30–11:40 a.m. CET
Closing remarks:
  • Alexei Filippov — Head of the Department of Legislation in the Field of Foreign Economic Activity of the Legal Department, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation
For experts from:
  • Academia
  • Practice
  • International organizations
  • Government agencies
Date
February 22, 2022, Tuesday
Time
9:00–11:40 a.m. CET (UTC+1)
Price
FREE
Working languages
Russian and English
A link to access the broadcast will be sent one hour before the event starts.
* The Program may be subject to change.