The 36 Group

36 Stone

Charles Debattista practises as counsel in the areas of dry shipping law, international trade and international arbitration. He appears in Court and in arbitrations in the UK and abroad, and also regularly provides Expert Opinions on English law for use in Courts and Tribunals abroad.

He has also regularly sat as an Arbitrator over almost two decades under LMAA, ICC, LCIA, SCMA, Swiss Chamber of Arbitration terms or ad hoc, both in this country and abroad. Widely published and cited, he has been closely associated with many of the main instruments used in shipping and trade law, spanning from COGSA 1992 to Incoterms 2020.

Much of Charles’s practice is cross-border and he has particular experience before and on tribunals composed of both common and civil lawyers, a context with which he is very comfortable having first qualified in Malta, a civilian jurisdiction, and then of course in England as a common lawyer.

Practice areas:

All areas of dry shipping

• Charterparties
• Bills of Lading, and other Cargo Documents
• Contracts of Affreightment

Commodities and International Trade

• Sale of goods contracts for bulk commodities, dry and wet
• Sale of goods in containers
• Incoterms 2020

Trade Finance

• Letters of Credit
• Bank Guarantees and Performance Bonds

International Arbitration

• Sits as arbitrator in the above areas
• Acts as Counsel before Tribunals in the above areas
• Litigation arising out of arbitrations, particularly challenges to Awards

1978 (Malta); 2005 (England and Wales)

Charles has extensive experience:

As Counsel with full rights of audience in all Courts in England and Wales As Arbitrator in arbitrations seated in London and elsewhere As Expert on points of English Law before foreign Courts and arbitral tribunals

After graduating first in Malta and then at Oxford, Charles started his career lecturing at the University of Southampton in 1979, taking a Chair in Commercial Law and heading the University’s Institute of Maritime Law for six years. Charles started an energetic practice as arbitrator in 2002.  He joined Stone Chambers in 2004 and moved into full-time practice at the Bar when he left academic life in 2011.  Charles was Head of 36 Stone between 2019 and 2022 and is now Joint Head (with Rachel Toney).

Much published across his practice areas, Charles’s most recent substantial work was Debattista on Bills of Lading in Commodity Trade, 4th ed, Bloomsbury Professional, with Francis Hornyold-Strickland.

English, Italian, Maltese.

LMAA, Supporting Member Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Baltic Exchange British Maritime Law Association Middle Temple Shanghai International Arbitration Centre Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitrators Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre

Leighton Park School, Reading; Royal University of Malta (1977 LLD); St Edmund Hall, Oxford (1979 BA; 1983 MA; Rhodes Scholar).