Cape Town Convention Academic Project – 5th Conference

The Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (the CTC) is one of the world’s most important commercial law treaties, which now has 70 Contracting States, including the UK. The Convention and its protocols provides for an international interest, registered in a central international registry, in aircraft, railway rolling stock and space assets. The CTC is not only worthy of study in its own right, but raises many issues of more general interest, such as the use of private law conventions in transnational law, and the process by which such conventions are developed and agreed. Papers from the first four annual conferences, held in Oxford between 2012 and 2015, are published in the Cape Town Convention Academic Journal and are available electronically from the project website.

The fifth annual conference, which builds on the success of the first four, will be held in Oxford on 13th and 14th September 2016. Papers will cover a variety of topics, including comparative analysis of aircraft, rail and space international registries and their regulatory provisions, assessment of the legal and economic case for a shipping protocol, as well as discussion of the relationships between EU transport regulation and the rail protocol. The conference will include a hypothetical case study session focusing on the application of Article XI (Alternative A) of the aircraft protocol and a session examining the CTC in the context of cross-border insolvency. There will also be an open discussion on a framework for economic assessment of the protocols to the CTC. The conference will start with a session on the status of CTC ratifications in Europe.

The Cape Town Convention Academic Project is a joint undertaking between the University of Oxford Faculty of Law and the University of Washington School of Law. Aspects of the Project are also being undertaken under the auspices of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT). The Project’s purpose is to facilitate the study and assessment of the CTC and to advance its aims. The Project will benefit scholars, practising lawyers, and judges and other government officials. The Project’s founding sponsor is the Aviation Working Group. It is comprised of several segments, including the creation of a comprehensive electronic data base, a specialised journal, the creation of teaching materials, and economic assessment.

For more information please contact Anton Didenko.