International Maritime Conventions Volume II: Navigation, Securities, Limitation of Liability

6 International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Maritime Liens and Mortgages, 1926 1 THE HISTORY OF THE CONVENTION The decision to consider the preparation of a uniform law on maritime liens and hypothèques was taken during the CMI Conference held in Amsterdam in 1904. Initially, the proposal had been to draw up a convention on conflict of laws, 1 although the view had been expressed that substantial uniformity would have been preferable, 2 and some discussion had also taken place in respect of the recognition of a maritime lien in respect of claims for collision damage. 3 The Bureau Permanent of the CMI was requested to appoint a commission with the task of preparing a preliminary draft of a treaty on ‘ hypothèques et privilèges maritimes ’, and a committee was instituted with the mandate to consider the problem and to report to the Bureau Permanent of the CMI. 4 The Commission drew up a preliminary draft convention for submission to the subsequent CMI Conference to be held in Liverpool the following year. The document, called ‘ Avant-projet de traité sur les hypothèques et les privilèges maritimes ’, consisted of an outline of the provisions that were subsequently adopted by the 1926 Convention, namely: (a) a rule of private international law on the law applicable to hypothèques ; (b) the priority of certain maritime liens over the hypothèques ; (c) the enumeration of such maritime liens; (d) the ranking of such liens and of the hypothèque ; and (e) the period of their validity. During the general discussion 5 a question of terminology was raised by the English delegate T. G. Carver, who so stated 6 :