Legal matters of maritime concern in Hawaii, Oceania, and beyond.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that the Carriage of Goods at Sea Act ("COGSA"), 46 U.S.C. 30701, means what it says when it caps carrier liability at $500 per package.
In Maersk Lines v. USA, the United States government arranged to ship aircraft cargo loaders from Charleston to Oman. Maersk shipped…
The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General just issued a report on "Major Management Challenges".
Among the challenges facing the Department are disaster response, border security, transportation security, financial management, and acquisition management. FEMA and Katrina get some attention. The Coast Guard and Deepwater do too.
The Coast Guard released its preliminary investigation into the response to the Cosco Busan oil spill today, as promised in my earlier post, here.
It is a lengthy report prepared by a committee of various federal, state and non-governmental organization representatives. Interesting to note that the committee found that owing to the reduction of…
The GAO recently released its report on container security in foreign ports. Lots of information and analysis here to digest, but troubling was its not-so-subtle comment, "We still see room for improvement."
Congress held hearings this week on TWIC implementation.
The Statement of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair is here. The Chair of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, here. Coast Guard Admiral Salerno, here. TWIC Program Manager for the Transportation Security Administration, here. TWIC implementation contractor’s representative, here. And
A California Congressman issued a press release discussing a new bill (unavailable today) imposing fees on exports of good through our ports. The bill is designed to "ease congestion" at the ports of entry. Dennis Bryant, Esq. at Holland & Knight questions the constitutionality of such a bill. The relevant question being whether Article I…
Lots of coral reef issues in the news here.
A recent mapping effort by the federal government revealed the coral reef ecosystem "thriving" off the Big Island, as reported here.
A Maui company was proposed to receive a $672,618 fine for coral reef damage at Molokini. Apparently, as a result of a vessel mishap…
Thanks to cgblog.org for their post on the new National Response Framework published by the Department of Homeland Security.
This framework "adds" on to the National Response Plan and is used for interagency (federal/state/local) responses to incidents. In the maritime context, the National Response Plan was frequently used for pollution incidents and cleanup.
