The language for the proposed Justice for Victims of Foreign Vessel Accidents Act (Bill) was released on Sept. 11, 2024. As discussed in Holland & Knight's previous blog post, "Foreign-Flagged Vessels Beware," Sept. 9, 2024,...more
For nearly 40 years and in more than 18,000 judicial opinions, federal courts have used the Chevron doctrine to defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute. On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court...more
9/3/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Corner Post Inc v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FERC ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Government Agencies ,
HUD ,
IRS ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
NTSB ,
OCC ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
U.S. Treasury
Following its Feb. 23, 2024, release of a pre-publication draft, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC)'s Final Rule on Demurrage and Detention Billing Requirements (Final Rule) was published on Feb. 26, 2024, in the Federal...more
3/25/2024
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Common Carriers ,
Detention ,
Federal Maritime Commission ,
Fee Disputes ,
Final Rules ,
Invoices ,
Maritime Transport ,
NPRM ,
NVOCCs ,
OMB ,
Shipping ,
Vessels
Many legal questions have been raised during the last 120 hours; initially when communications had been lost with Titan, a submersible operated by OceanGate Inc., a corporation based in Everett, Washington, and then on the...more
Since its passage on June 16, 2022, the shipping industry is understandably focused on the implications of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA) (Pub. Law No. 117-146, 2022 Enacted S. 3580), and the rulemakings that...more
Commissioner Rebecca F. Dye of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC or the Commission) has released her Final Report for Fact Finding 29 titled "The Effects of COVID-19 on the U.S. International Ocean Transportation Supply...more
The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) has released SHIPSALE 22, a new standard contract form for use by commercial sellers and purchasers of vessels. SHIPSALE 22 is intended to replace the popular SALEFORM...more
In the past week, the White House has launched additional salvos of sanctions against the Russian Federation in response to its continued efforts to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. This Holland...more
3/15/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
Executive Orders ,
General Licenses ,
Imports ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Russia ,
Shipping ,
Trade Restrictions ,
Ukraine
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) announced on Sept. 15, 2021, that it would move forward with two demurrage-and-detention related initiatives proposed by Commissioner Rebecca F. Dye as part of Fact Finding 29.
The...more
While the United States continues to assess the full scope of the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Ida on the U.S. Gulf Coast, national media have already reported shortages of oil and fuel supplies, as well as food and...more
Cargo congestion has reached historic proportions during the COVID-19 pandemic as the demand for imports by U.S. consumers and businesses has skyrocketed combined with an increase in operational disruptions. The effect has...more
Under the Biden Administration, environmental sustainability as a means to combat climate change has been thrust into the spotlight as an emerging national imperative. This was made clear through President Joe Biden's...more
4/21/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Biofuel ,
Climate Change ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Executive Orders ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
International Maritime Organization (IMO) ,
Paris Agreement ,
Renewable Energy ,
Sustainability
So often the maritime disasters in and around the United States that garner the trade press headlines or U.S. Supreme Court rulings occur off the coasts of the country and the Gulf of Mexico. However, vital commerce and...more
Negotiating a contract, a charter party in maritime parlance, is a balance of leverage and sometimes a leap of faith. Certain issues are more important to companies than others, and for those issues, the language of clauses...more
4/6/2020
/ CITGO Asphalt Refining Co v Frescati Shipping Co Ltd ,
Clean-Up Costs ,
Contract Terms ,
Crude Oil ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) ,
Safe-Berth Clause ,
SCOTUS ,
Shipping Cargo ,
Split of Authority ,
Strict Liability ,
Subcharter Agreements ,
Vessels ,
Warranty of Safety
Just when we thought the question of “What Is a Package?” had been addressed ad nauseum, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York took another look at the issue....more
Despite the alleged softening of the maritime industry since 2008-09, the volume of waterborne trade continues to rise. The ebbs and flows of the industry mean changing partnerships and alliances, more complicated logistics...more
Much has been theorized in the past two months concerning whether the Trump Administration will follow through on President-Elect Donald Trump's campaign pledge to "rip up" international trade deals such as the North American...more
1/11/2017
/ Common Carriers ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Free Trade Agreements ,
Maritime Transport ,
NAFTA ,
Shipping ,
Shipping Cargo ,
Trade Relations ,
Transportation Industry ,
Trump Administration ,
US Trade Policies ,
Vessels ,
WTO
It is a fundamental precept of military planning that naval operations are a capital-intensive endeavor, given the long time involved in the design and construction of the ships of the U.S. Navy's fleet. The Navy currently...more
For the past sixty years, and until January 11, 2013, U.S. federal courts routinely have applied the comparatively expansive (and potentially creditor-friendly) "maritime law of veil piercing" when examining veil-piercing...more
In Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida, No. 11-626 (January 15, 2013), the U.S. Supreme Court "reformulated" the definition of "vessel." It explained that an objective test, which looks to the physical characteristics of...more
The Eleventh Circuit, the federal appellate court for the southeast region of the U.S. including Florida, in In re Consorcio Ecuatoriano de Telecomunicaciones S.A., recently decided a case with broad implications for foreign...more