DICTAeducation
A Biographical Sketch of
Mr Simon
Baughen
Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and
practised in maritime law for several years before
joining the law school in 1989. He was made a Reader
in 2006. His research interests lie mainly in the field
of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and
the environmental law implications of the activities of
multinational corporations in the developing world.
What motivated you to specialise in Shipping Law?
the Law School without a doctorate, although when I joined very few of
us had one. I wear this absence with pride as it shows that I have worked
in practice before coming to chill out in the cooler groves of academe. I
may not be able to critique Harbermaas, but I know how law and lawyers
work in the real world.
Nothing, I fell into this area of law by accident. At the end of my
first six months’ common law pupillage in London I decided I did not
want to be a criminal lawyer so I contacted a friend’s boyfriend who was a
Chancery barrister to see if I could get a pupillage
in his chambers. There were no vacancies at the
“I wear this absence [of a In regards to the environmental implications of
time but he then redirected me to a friend in a
corporate activities, how can
doctorate] with pride as it multinational ethical or social contribution? lawset of shipping chambers and I did six months
yers make an
shows that I have worked
there and really enjoyed it. I couldn’t get a tenancy
and didn’t want to hang around doing another six in practice before coming to
I think change can come about by suing the
months’ pupillage so I took a job with the Lonbastards. Voluntary codes of conduct seem like
don P&I Club advising on legal issues relating to chill out in the cooler groves window-dressing to me. A recent significant case
shipowners’ liabilities.
has been the Court of Appeal’s decision in Chanof academe.”
Five years later I then moved to a firm of
dler v. Cape PLC, No. [2012] EWCA Civ 525, in
shipping solicitors. One of the big cases I was involved in (on the losing which a parent company was held to owe a direct duty of care to employside) was The Captain Panagos DP, a mysterious scuttling case which went ees of its subsidiary, by reason of its active involvement in the activities
to the Court of Appeal. I have since worked out the inside story behind of the subsidiary. It wouldn’t work, however, in a situation like that which
it, but that’s my secret.
occurred in the Bhopal disaster, where the parent company had no such
I joined the Law School in 1989. I am one of the few academics in active involvement. »
50 | DICTA 2013