Evolution of research themes in Maritime Policy & Management—1973–2012

From its first issue in 1973, Maritime Policy & Management (MPM) has sought to be the main outlet for shipping and port research. During its 40-year development, it has indeed become the flagship journal in the field marked by its inclusion into the SSCI list in 2011. This paper examines how maritime research has developed over the last four decades by reviewing all the published papers in MPM. There has been a remarkable inflow of authors and institutions to MPM in recent decades especially from Asian countries. While ‘shipping’ research has been the most popular research area, a relative increase in ‘ports’ research has been observed in recent years. While economics has been a dominant disciplinary base, management-related disciplines contributed to the journal in the 2000s, increasing the disciplinary diversity of MPM. The study is useful not only for understanding the past and current state of maritime research, but also for developing a concrete foundation to discuss further development of MPM.     

The response of the legal system to technological innovation in aquaculture: A comparative study of mariculture legislation in California,Florida and Maine

This article examines salt‐water aquaculture (mariculture) legislation in California, Florida, and Maine, as illustrative of one generic response of the law to aquacultural innovation. Unlike aquacultural legislation in other states, generally drafted to restrict leasing of coastal waters for specific existing technologies, the legislation studied represents a more flexible approach which would accommodate new technologies. Analysis of specific provisions of the three laws indicates the complexity of the issues involved and a variety of mechanisms selected for regulating mariculture, and identifies different state priorities and goals. This report concludes that whereas broadly drafted legislation exemplified by the statutes under study is more likely to accommodate new mariculture technologies than piecemeal legislation, there are a number of complex issues that must be identified and resolved in order to achieve the desired results. The failure of each of the states to respond fully to the broad range of issues involved may inhibit aquacultural innovation or unduly restrict nonaquacultural uses of the coastal zone.     

On a clear day in Ogunquit,Maine

Abstract

Winning a court case against a federal agency may seem to be the sweetest success for an environmental group, but losing litigation is not total failure. In the case of Ogunquit Village Corporation et al., vs. R. M. Davis the plaintiff lost the legal skirmish against the Soil Conservation Service, but in doing so significantly aided the struggle within the agency to implement more environmentally sensitive planning and engineering procedures. This paper describes the court case in terms of the Soil Conservation Service's procedural and policy responses including the agency's modus operandi and the internal paths/pitfalls involved with the implementation of visual resource management. The author also speculates as to the visual resource understanding of the evidence presented by the plaintiff and a possible but unstated visual basis for the original complaint.     

International container design regulations and ISO standards: are they fit for purpose?

Increasing stack heights on container ships and growing volumes of high density cargo have increased the loads and stresses placed on containers, requiring an assessment of current container strength specifications. Growing adoption of terminal automation is also requiring greater standardisation in the codification and marking of containers. However, it is shown that there is widespread misunderstanding of the roles of the IMO and the ISO in regulating and promoting standards in the design, dimensions, ratings, coding, marking and strength of containers. In this paper the legal status of the IMO’s Convention for Safe Containers (CSC) and ISO standards is clarified, and a common container specification framework is developed to assess the extent to which international regulations and standards are aligned. The analysis identifies gaps and inconsistencies between regulations and standards and assesses the impact these have on operations and safety. The study highlights to policy makers anomalies arising from the recent inclusion in the CSC of direct references to ISO standards. Finally, in providing a comprehensive definition of container specifications the paper provides a knowledge base to promote theory building for applied researchers in the field of container technology and operations.