PROFESSOR YVONNE BAATZ (MA Oxon.) qualified as a solicitor in 1981. She practised with two leading firms of solicitors in the City of London, specialising in shipping litigation until 1991. Since then she has been an academic specialising in maritime subjects including charterparties, bills of lading, marine insurance, and conflict of laws. She was Director of the Institute of Maritime Law at the University of Southampton from 2003 to 2006 and is now Professor at the Centre for Commerical Law Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.