Arbitration clauses are sacrosanct in maritime contracts. Standard forms of charterparties and bills of lading reflect a desire to trade over the trusted dispute resolution choice of arbitration. However, when incorporating arbitration clauses, disputes and interpretational complexities continue to arise evidencing that the law is not settled yet. This book introduces a holistic evaluation of the commercial reasons and the legal principles that permeate the incorporation of arbitration clauses in modern maritime contracts, contrasting arbitration with exclusive jurisdiction clauses, where appropriate.

The book presents a modern specialised legal study of incorporation of arbitration clauses into maritime contracts, considering recent developments and long-established principles of incorporation.

Offering a thorough research into English, European and Chinese law, with the objective to assess how the incorporation of arbitration principles crystallises through the years, the book will be of interest to researchers, legal practitioners and commercial parties.