Craig Cunningham, the Head of the Shipping & Logistics Practice at pan-African law firm Bowmans in Cape Town, one of a few lawyers from the African jurisdiction to address delegates at the 8th Asian Maritime Law Conference (AMLC) held in Singapore at the end of September.

Cunningham spoke on the topic of judicial sales in South Africa, in a panel discussion involving shipping practitioners from various countries, They discussed the issues arising from the judicial sale of ships in each of their jurisdictions.

"South Africa remains a popular jurisdiction for enforcing maritime claims, particularly in the current economic climate. We are seeing an increase in the number of judicial sales in South Africa, as crew and trade creditors step up their efforts to force cash strapped owners to settle outstanding sums due to them." explains Cunningham.

Cunningham detailed issues around bringing judicial applications in South Africa and the ranking of creditors claiming from the fund, during his discussion which specifically addressed the position of the mortgagee bank.

The AMLC addressed the key areas of maritime industry concerns such as challenges due to the economic downturn, the latest innovations on dispute resolution, the effect of international insolvencies and recent international regulations adopted by Singapore.