Collaborations

Centre for Maritime Dispute Resolution

About us

Effective, efficient and expeditious mechanism of dispute resolution is an essential component for growth and development of international trade and commerce.  It is common practice for parties involved in international maritime commercial transactions to choose a preferred alternate mechanism for resolving disputes because of its supposed efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Arbitration is a recognised branch of dispute resolution in international maritime trade and commerce. Specifically speaking in maritime sector consensually agreed dispute resolution apply to diverse activities including financing, building, sale and acquisition, deployment of ships, carriage of goods by sea, marine insurances and other marine adventures and the other contractual relationships arising from the use of ships.

London and New York have been conventionally dominant centres of maritime arbitration. In recent past, Singapore and China have put significant efforts to develop and promote the arbitral systems and to encourage the International maritime community to use their venues for the resolution of disputes. The economic growth of India and the consequent increase in trade flow being followed by a desire of the maritime community to resolve their disputes locally in an effective, efficient and expeditious manner.

Vision of the Center

The Centre carries an outlook to foster active research on the contemporary issues of the ever-growing legal field and to promote capacity building. The Centre aspires to become a Centre of excellence for research, advocacy and capacity building in the field of dispute resolution in Maritime sector with special focus on alternate dispute resolution, and to be recognized locally and globally for quality of service rendered by the Centre.

Mission of the Centre

The Centre aims to provide new insights, knowledge transfer and training in the area by organizing International events such as Conferences, Seminars, Webinars Capacity building training programmes for sector professionals and students and by starting its own journal in Law of Maritime Dispute Resolution.

Center aims to facilitate disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and enhance its horizon by forming collaboration with International Arbitral Institutions and arbitrators of International repute having made substantial contribution in the field of arbitration and alternate dispute resolution.

Centre aims to aid in providing legal consultancies to the individuals and organizational bodies in need. It will work in acquiring national and international research projects and thereby enable research on adequate implementation of Alternate Dispute Resolution Law in maritime sector, both at local and global level.

Core Values

The core values adopted by the Centre for Maritime Dispute Resolution are ethics, Integrity, Teamwork, Neutrality, Excellence, and Empathy.

Ethics

  • Research shall be carried out in an environment of academic freedom and honesty.
  • The Centre will adhere to the highest standards of ethics in all its activities.

Integrity

  • Demonstrates the highest standards of professional behaviour
  • Operates with transparency and honesty in everything we do

Teamwork

  • Works collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal
  • Respects contributions of all team members
  • Fosters an environment where teamwork is valued and rewarded

Neutrality

  • Embraces all differences as they contribute to the richness of our community
  • Values and promotes full utilization of workforce without arbitrary outlook
  • Respects others ideas, beliefs, backgrounds and opinions to drive excellence

Excellence

  1. Promises to employ the most innovative solutions, and ideas to all initiatives
  2. Fosters an environment of continuous improvement to produce quality knowledge.
  3. Explores creative approaches to problem solving
  4. The Institute is committed to excellence in all spheres of its activities and will go through internal and external reviews, to work towards continuous improvement.
  5. The centre will recognise exceptional efforts through awards and honours.

Scope and Functions of the Centre

The Centre aspires to make contribution in the field of Maritime Dispute Resolution at local and global level by.

  • Organizing International training events such as Certificate Courses on Maritime Arbitration, and Alternate Dispute Resolution Mechanism which will include short term courses and diploma course.
  • Creating a platform for deliberation on the field by organizing Seminar, Conferences, Webinars and other similar events.
  • Creating a platform of creation of knowledge with initiating a research journal, edited book and inviting quality article for publication. And by lunching own book with the research conducted at the Centre.
  • Forming collaborations with National and international institutions and specialized experts of high repute and significant contribution in the field.
  • Executing outreach programme to spread awareness about the field

Five Year Plan

The mentioned Five-Year Plans will be followed to achieve the Vision, mission and ensuing that the Centre fulfills the intended functions.

First Year

The Centre will:

  1. Organize conferences, seminar and similar academic event.
  2. Identify and conduct an exhaustive study of the major research areas in Maritime Arbitration.
  3. Work on acquiring collaboration with National and International Maritime Arbitral Institutions.
  4. Organize engagements and consultation session with area experts on the field.

Second Year

The Centre will:

  1. Organize conferences, seminar and similar academic event.
  2. Organize One-month certificate course on Introduction to law of Maritime Dispute Resolution.
  3. Come out with call for chapters to invite quality contribution and initiate the working on an Edited Book on International Maritime Dispute Resolution law.
  4. Come out with call for articles to invite quality research papers and initiate an annual journal on Law of Maritime Dispute Resolution.
  5. Initiate working on a text book on Maritime Arbitration in India.
  6. Conduct an outreach programmes and invite experts on Maritime Dispute Resolution to provide awareness to all stakeholders

Third Year

  1. Organize conferences, seminar and similar academic event.
  2. Organize Two certificate courses of One-month first on Admiralty Law in first semester and the second on Maritime Arbitration.
  3. Launch the First Edition of edited book on International Maritime Dispute Resolution law.
  4. Launch the First Volume of the Law of Maritime Dispute Resolution.
  5. To submit proposal for the text book on Maritime Arbitration in India and attempt to get publication with Cambridge, Brill, Oxford or Routledge
  6. Conduct an outreach programme and invite experts on Maritime Arbitration and Admiralty Jurisdiction to provide awareness to all stakeholders
  7. Constitute a legal consultancy for providing aid and advisory Alternate Dispute Resolution Law in Maritime, Admiralty and related issues

Fourth Year

  1. Organize conferences, seminar and similar academic event.
  2. Organize Two certificate courses of One-month first on Maritime Arbitration in first semester and the second on Maritime Claims.
  3. Launch a text book on Maritime Arbitration in India with reputed publisher such as Cambridge, Brill, Oxford or Routledge
  4. Conduct an outreach programme and invite experts on Maritime Commercial Dispute Resolution Law to provide awareness to all stakeholders
  5. To Continue the work on legal consultancy for providing aid and advisory Alternate Dispute Resolution Law in Maritime, Admiralty and related issues
  6. To work on getting funded research projects on International Dispute Resolution Law related issues

Fifth Year

  1. Organize conferences, seminar and similar academic event.
  2. Organize Two certificate courses of One-month first on Maritime Arbitration in first semester and the second on Admiralty Jurisdiction and Practice.
  3. Conduct an outreach programme and invite experts on Maritime Commercial Dispute Resolution Law to provide awareness to all stakeholders
  4. To Continue the work on legal consultancy for providing aid and advisory Alternate Dispute Resolution Law in Maritime, Admiralty and related issues
  5. To work on getting funded research projects on International Dispute Resolution Law related issues

Head of Centre

The Research Centre shall encourage participation from all the faculty members. In particular, the following shall be the members:

Designation Name Profile
Patron in Chief Shri Rajkumar Beniwal, IAS
Vice Chairman & CEO, Gujarat Maritime Board
Patron Prof. Dr. S. Shanthakumar
Provost & Director (I/C), School of Maritime Law Policy & Administration Gujarat Maritime University
Head of the Centre Dr. Waseem Ahmad Bhat
PhD, LL.M, LL.B, UGC-NET Assistant Professor of Law, School of Maritime Law, Policy & Administration Gujarat Maritime University
Member Dr. Abhay Singh Thakur
PhD, LL.M., LL.B, UGC-NET Assistant Professor of Law, School of Maritime Law, Policy & Administration Gujarat Maritime University
Member Dr. Mohit Gupta
PhD, LL.M., LL.B, BA, NET-JRF Assistant Professor of Law, School of Maritime Law, Policy & Administration Gujarat Maritime University
Student Members
The Centre faculty members will also constitute a student members’ body and are expected to encourage all students to participate in research-based activities by way of regular assignments, activities, practical exercises, etc. Each student will be given an equal opportunity to be a part of the Centre.