Colin de la Rue Author

Colin de la Rue first saw pollution from ships as a schoolboy in 1967, when oil from the Torrey Canyon came ashore near his home in Guernsey in the world’s first major tanker spill. Ten years later he joined the international law firm Ince & Co, which had represented the ship’s insurers, and soon he was part of a team acting in the major tanker accidents of the 1970s. In his 36 years at the firm he worked with colleagues and overseas lawyers in most major oil spills worldwide.

He acted in one of the first cases involving the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds, and as solicitor to the oil industry CRISTAL scheme he was concerned with claims by oil companies and insurers in the Exxon Valdez case and several other US oil spills. From 1990 the ramifications for international shipping of the US Oil Pollution Act, together with a succession of major incidents in Europe and elsewhere, focused his work almost entirely on pollution from ships and its implications in various branches of maritime commerce.

In areas of legal policy and reform he was closely involved in international efforts to devise and promote uniform criteria for assessing claims for pollution, and he advised leading shipping and insurance industry bodies on various proposals for change. On these and other issues he has given papers at conferences, seminars and universities in many countries around the world.

For ten years he was a visiting lecturer in maritime law at the City University in London, and since leaving practice as a solicitor in 2013 he has devoted time to industry training in the environmental aspects of shipping. He continues to provide consultancy advice to shipowners and insurers, both individually in specific incidents and collectively on matters of general industry concern. By 2022 had been involved in over 75 serious incidents in 40 countries.

He was general editor of Liability for Damage to the Marine Environment (LLP, 1993), and the first edition of Shipping and the Environment (LLP, 1998), written with Charles B. Anderson, was quickly acclaimed as the leading text. In this new edition he draws on experience of most major events in this field from its first beginnings to the present day.

Charles B. Anderson comes from a family with long maritime traditions. His father, Commodore John W. Anderson, was for many years master of the Blue Riband superliner United States, and he himself holds the rank of Commander in the US Naval Reserve. He was educated at Columbia College and graduated in law from Columbia Law School, where he later taught admiralty law. He received a master’s degree from Princeton University and was a George C. Marshall fellow at the University of Copenhagen under a grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation.

From 1998 to 2021 he was Senior Vice President and Head of Office of Skuld North America, New York-based representatives of Assuranceforeningen Skuld, a leading Protection and Indemnity Club with particular expertise in marine casualty and pollution cases. Previously he was a partner in Holland & Knight, an internationally recognized maritime and transportation law firm which he joined in 1980, and where he specialized in admiralty and environmental law. He has represented shipowners, charterers, P&I Clubs and other marine insurers in numerous well-known maritime casualty and pollution cases, and has written and lectured extensively on marine pollution. He is a former chairman of the US Maritime Law Association’s Committee on the CMI and a member of its Marine Ecology Committee. In 1998 he was elected a titulary member of the CMI in recognition of his work in the area of international shipping and environmental law. In 2010 he testified before the US Congress on behalf of the International Group of P&I Clubs on liability and financial responsibility following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He remains active in the maritime industry as a member of the Society of Maritime Arbitrators in New York and a consultant on marine casualties and pollution.

Jonathan Hare first entered the maritime field in 1989 on joining the Legal Department of Assuranceforeningen Skuld, a P&I Club in the International Group of P&I Clubs. He spent the next thirty years based at the Club’s head office in Oslo in a variety of largely claims-related roles, culminating in appointment as General Counsel in 2012. He has served as a Special Advisor to Skuld since entering into semi-retirement in 2020.

He gained considerable experience of major tanker spills as a result of handling claims resulting from the Braer and Sea Empress incidents in the 1990s, during the course of which he worked in close co-operation with the IOPC Funds and ITOPF. For the last twenty years of his career, he contributed significantly to the work of the International Group of P&I Clubs, participating in many Committees and Working Groups, in particular as a member of the Pollution and Salvage Committees, and served as chairman of the Compulsory Insurance Committee for fifteen years.

His experience of major casualties and participation in the work of the International Group led to regular contact with intergovernmental organisations, including the IMO, IOPC Funds and International Labour Organisation, and participation in meetings of their governing bodies. He also played an active part in the resolution of the financial security issues arising out of implementation of the Bunkers, Wreck Removal and Maritime Labour Conventions, and the Athens Protocol on Passenger Liabilities. This work entailed close liaison with industry bodies such as the International Chamber of Shipping.

He was a member of the INTERTANKO Documentary Committee for many years and part of the Norwegian delegation to the BIMCO Documentary Committee. He also served as a Director of the Board of ITOPF and a member of the ITOPF Advisory Committee.