Tetley Lecture on maritime law to be held April 3

Tulane Law’s endowed lecture focused on maritime law, the William Tetley Lecture, will be held April 3 and will explore the latest pressing issues affecting shipping operations throughout the world.

This year’s Tetley lecturer is the Hon. Sarah Derrington, a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia since 2018. Prior to her appointment to the Federal Court, Justice Derrington was the Dean of Law at the University of Queensland and a barrister specialized in maritime and shipping law, general commercial law and arbitration.

The title of her address will be “Has National Idiosyncrasy Trumped International Uniformity?” and will start at 5 p.m. in the Judge Wendell H. Gauthier Moot Court Room 110, with a reception immediately following in the Marian Mayer Berkett room.

Derrington holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Queensland, as well as an LLB, LLM and a PhD in the field of maritime insurance law.  She became a Professor of Admiralty Law in 2008. Immediately prior to her appointment to the Court, she was the Dean of Law at the University of Queensland. She is the author (with James M. Turner QC of the English Bar) of “The Law and Practice of Admiralty Matters,” now in its second edition (OUP, 2016) and (with Dr. Michael White OAM QC) of “Australian Maritime Law” (Federation Press, 2020). 

Derrington is past president of the Maritime Law Association of Australian and New Zealand (MLAANZ) and, from 2012-2017 served on the Board of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). She has been a member of the Admiralty Rules Committee since 2006 and was a member of the Council of the Australian Maritime College (AMC) from 2012 -2023. She continues to serve on the Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM).

She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Law in 2009, of the Nautical Institute in 2013, of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018, and as an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn in 2021. She is a past president of the Australian Law Reform Commission. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List of 2022.

In 1999, the Tulane Maritime Law Center established the William Tetley Lecture in Maritime Law in honor of the late Professor William Tetley, a Professor at McGill Law School in Montreal. The Lecture was later endowed by a gift from Bill Tetley himself and continues to operate under the direction of the Maritime Law Center.