Charles Debattista

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

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