rhidianthomas@btinternet.com

Emeritus Professor of Maritime Law and Founder Director of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, School of Law, Swansea University, Wales, UK. Previously held academic positions at several UK and overseas universities, and is currently visiting professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2011-2012 he held the national Francqui Chair at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Maritime Law, a member of the CMI (and the IWG on marine insurance), British Maritime Law Association, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and British Insurance Law Association.

His principal teaching and research interests are in the fields of maritime and shipping law, marine insurance law, international trade law and commercial arbitration.  He is the author and editor of many books and has contributed widely to academic and professional journals. Most recently he has co-edited and contributed to Shipping, Law and the Marine Environment in the 21st Century (2013, Lawtext Publishing, UK); a chapter titled ‘International Sale Contracts and Multimodal Transport Documents: Two Issues of Significance’ in Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air (2013, Informa Law, UK); and a chapter titled Dimensions on the Concept of Inherent Vice as an excluded Peril in Marine Insurance, in Selected Issues in Marine Law and Policy ed Mejia (2013 Nova Science Publishers, New York).

He is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars, and also acts as an expert witness and consultant.