Papers and correspondence of the British Maritime Law Association (BMLA), dating largely from 1947-c1971, with a few related items dating back to 1921, and comprising adminstrative papers and correspondence of the BMLA and its papers on issues in maritime law; papers and correspondence relating to the Comité Maritime International (CMI) and to overseas maritime law associations in Europe and America; and papers and correspondence on international conferences concerning issues of maritime law, held in Europe, the USA, and elsewhere, including conference documents, amendments, proceedings, and papers of the British delegation. The papers relate to issues in maritime law including limitations of shipowners' liability; bills of lading (issued by the carrier to the shipper on delivery of goods for shipment); the Hague Rules (defining the rights and liabilities of a carrier, introduced in Brussels in 1921 and adopted first as clauses in bills of lading and after 1923 as the Brussels Convention on Limitation of Liability); the 'gold clause' concerning contradictions in international conventions regarding the extent of liability; carriage of nuclear material by sea and the liability of operators, including the OEEC (Organisation for European Economic Co-operation) convention; and issues relating to oil pollution in the wake of the Torrey Canyon incident (1967).
