The importance of international maritime labour law - both as a
component of - ternational maritime law, and in socio-political and
economic terms - has been recognised by the IMO International Maritime
Law Institute for a number of years. Indeed, the Institute has annually
organised a course on maritime labour law with the participation of
inter alia the International Maritime Organization, the - ternational
Labour Organization, the International Transport Workers' Federation,
and the German Shipowners' Association. It was therefore a great
pleasure when the authors invited me to introduce their forthcoming
monograph on Maritime Work Law Fundamentals: Responsible S- powners
Reliable Seafarers. As the title suggests, a fundamental challenge of
this branch of international maritime law is to achieve a balance
between the interests of the two main stakeholders. Institutionally, the
effort to achieve this balance dates back a number of decades with its
genesis mainly found in the work of the International Labour
Organization. It has to be said that whilst this effort achieved great
progress, it has led to a haphazard, plethora of legal instruments.