Between 1 September and 1 October 2025, the Maritime Law Association held an essay prize to mark the 120th anniversary of the Russian Maritime Law Society. The call was open to senior students and practising lawyers under the age of 30, with submissions expected to engage critically with contemporary challenges in maritime law and maritime arbitration. Within one month, nearly thirty essays were submitted:

• “The Sue & Labour Clause in Marine Insurance Contracts: Striking a Balance of Interests in Risk Allocation” – Elizaveta Bogdanova

• “Regulating Platform–Based Solutions for Carriage by Sea” – Yuliya Neznamova

• “Legal Challenges Posed by the Use of Autonomous Vessels in International Shipping” – Ivan Ovchinnikov

• “The Legal Status of Floating Offshore Oil Platforms” – Sergey Kitov

• “Legal Risks Faced by Tanker Fleet Owners in the Event of Oil Spills” – Alexandra Makusheva

• “The Legal Framework Governing the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route” – Luiza Rempel

• “Force Majeure Clauses in Maritime Carriage Contracts” – Vladimir Afonin

• “Party Autonomy in Cross–Border Maritime Tort Claims” – Denis Goldabin

• “The Development of the Marine Insurance Contract at the Present Stage” – Anastasia Shlyakhova

• “Labour Relations in Maritime Transport under Modern Conditions: Key Features and Issues” – Albina Bugraeva

• “General Average in Maritime Law: Regulation and Key Characteristics. Conflicts of Classification” – Raisa Tolchneva

• “Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships: Challenges to Traditional Law in the Allocation of Liability and Marine Insurance” – Ekaterina Mitina

• “Limitation of Shipowners’ Liability under a Sanctions Regime: Conflicts between Russian and International Law” – Daria Fedoseeva

• “The 2008 Rotterdam Rules: Unratified Potential and Regulatory Challenges of Multimodal Carriage” – Elizaveta Lazakovich

• “On the Role of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in the Present-Day World” – Vladislava Dryupina

• “Challenges and Issues in the Insurance of Maritime Autonomous Vessels” – Elizaveta Semenova

• “Issues Relating to the Legal Status of the Policyholder in Marine Insurance Contracts for the Benefit of a Third Party” – Konstantin Avdonin

• “Terminology and Classification Issues in Contracts for the Carriage of Goods by Sea under Russian Law” – Angelina Blinova

• “Smart Ports: Legal Regulation in Russia and Abroad” – Tatyana Zubkova

• “The Role and Development of Maritime Arbitration in the Context of Contemporary Challenges and Transformations in Maritime Law” – Anastasia Roganyan

• “Legal Challenges in Regulating Engineering Support for the Shipbuilding Industry” – Sofia Markova

• “Enhancing Non–Governmental Mechanisms for the Resolution of Private Disputes” – Vlada Khanina

• “The Danish Straits through the Lens of Private International Law” – Antonina Petrova

• “Sanctions and Maritime Law: The Blurring of Public and Private Legal Norms” – Viktoria Sherina

• “Digital Bills of Lading and Smart Contracts: Implications for Maritime Arbitration and Legal Harmonisation” – Yaroslav Mishin

• “The Adverse Impact of International Conventions on International Maritime Law” – Vlada Khegay

• “Maritime Charterparty Contracts under Current Russian Law” – Alexandra Ivanchenko

Beyond the contributions listed above, the Association’s leadership, together with the Young RUMLA Committee, selected four top essays using three benchmarks: the subject matter combines theoretical significance with practical relevance; the authors rely not only on domestic sources but also on leading foreign authorities in maritime law; and the originality of the work exceeds 75 per cent.

First place was awarded to Papu Alieva, a master’s student at the Russian School of Private Law, for her analysis of the relationship between applicable law and proforma contracts in the shipbuilding industry. The subject matter is noteworthy given the scarcity of academic research on this issue in the Russian-language legal literature.

Second place was awarded to Varvara Podguzova, a fourth-year law student at St. Petersburg State University. Her work offered an in-depth analysis of marine insurance under sanctions, with particular attention to conflict-of-laws issues and accumulated arbitral practice.

Third place was jointly awarded to Inessa Barinskaya, a master’s student at the Faculty of Law of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, and Varvara Gavrilova, a student at Pablo de Olavide University (Spain). Barinskaya analysed the fundamental issue of causation in marine insurance, while Gavrilova explored jurisdiction clauses in bills of lading through a comparative examination of Russian and Spanish practice.

Below we provide the complete texts of these four papers. ■

Papu Alieva

Varvara Podguzova

Inessa Barinskaya