HE

LCs provide for the tender of shipping documents. so do INCOTERMS 2000. ISBP explains how to quote an Incoterm on a requisite document. ISBP explains how the UCP should be applied in transport document examination.

Charles Debattista is active in areas of Incoterms, the UCP and transport documentation.

HE AND THEY

He is a great teacher but he does not cease to learn from others, as the world-famous LC specialist T.O.Lee, MAE ACIArb MITD, Managing Director, T.O.Lee Consultants (he is among the world's top 9 specialists listed in LC VIEWS, Vol.2, No.11, November 2005), writes to LC VIEWS editor Ravi Mehta about him - Charles Debattista:

"Dear Ravi,

Yes, he is my friend who respects my opinions on bill of lading. At one ICC meeting he specifically asked me to comment on the Maersk bill of lading disputes."

Jia Hao, Financial Product Manager, Bank of China, China, writes in his e-mail message to Ravi Mehta:

"I do not know him personally, but know him from his book "Incoterms in Practice" edited by him, and his article"Banks and the Carriage of Goods by Sea: Secure Transport Documents and the UCP500" as well as from T.O.Lee's website (www. toleee.com) . He is a distinguished expert in both international transportation and letter of credit, who is badly needed in the LC world".

HIS

HIS PRACTICE AREAS AND EXPERIENCES
 

Charles has taught and practised in international trade law for the last twenty years. He has focused on the connections between the contracts of sale, carriage and the letter of credit Consquently, he has written, taught and advised on:

• contracts for the international sale of goods and commodities.
  
  
• charterparties
  
  
• bills of lading, letter of credit and bank guarantees.
  
  
  

Recent advisory work includes disputes regarding the responsibilities of fob sellers towards carriers as shippers,the impact of delivery clauses in bills of lading on their tender under letters of credit, and the clausing of bills of lading making them "unclean".

Also recently acted as expert witness in the US on the effect of INCOTERMS on the transfer of risk in the sale of high-value electrical equipment goods.

Charles also has an active arbitration practice in international trade disputes under ICC rules, under the terms of the Grain and Feed Trade Association, and under the terms of the London Maritime Arbitrators' Association.

Charles has also been heavily involved in drafting work over the years with the ICC: he was chairman of the Drafting Group for INCOTERMS 2000, of the Drafting Group for the ICC Force Majeure and Hardship Clauses 2003 and co-chairman of the Drafting Group for the ICC 2004 E-terms, contractual terms for the electronic conclusion of contracts. Charles is currently a member of the Consultative Group working on the revision of UCP 500

HIS PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

Charles is a Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Southampton. He is a graduate in Law from the Universities of Malta and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Charles is a Registered European Lawyer at the Bar of England and Wales, a Member of the Middle Temple and also qualified as Advocate at the Bar in Malta.

He is an Arbitrator and Associate Member with Stone Chambers, a set of barristers' chambers in London specialising in international Trade disputes (www.stonechambers.com).


HIS PUBLICATIONS
 

Charles has written books and articles from across the field of international trade law. His main work is THE SALE OF GOODS CARRIED BY SEA. He has also written two volumes of Halsbury's Laws of England ( on Shipping Law and on the Sale of Goods); he has also edited Incoterms in Practice and The Transfer of Property in International sales.

HIS MEMBERSHIPS

Charles is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is also a Member of ICC Banking Commission. of the ICC Transport and Logistics Commission and Vice Chairman of the ICC Commission for Commercial Law and Practice. He also chairs the ICC Panel of Experts on Incoterms.

EDITOR'S NOTE: LC VIEWS wishes him continuous successful life. We hope the LC lawyers and law professors will find this edition inspiring. LC bankers know Incoterms and will now come to know (more) about the architect of INCOTERMS 2000 - Charles Debattista. You may contact him at c.debattista@soton.ac.uk