OREANDA-NEWS. July 01, 2015. Transport of goods by sea has steadily grown in the last few years. Asia's quick middle class growth, globalisation and the subsequent growth of international trade are causing an intensification of trade by sea. Therefore, lawsuits have been proportionally multiplying year after year.

In spite of international regulations accepted by most countries and created out of international conventions, like the "International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to Arrest of Sea-Going Ships" (1952, Brussels), national legislations have specific features that make it difficult for lawyers specialised in maritime law to get to know every detail of each legislation. Due to this fact, it is convenient to rely on law firms specialised in maritime law, in the harbours they are needed across the 5 continents. Devoted to make this possible, arrives "The Shiparrest Network."

The Shiparrest Network is not just a webpage; it's an online tool designed to become essential in order to make easier and speed up ship arrests and releases in all continents, among other procedures. It is a newly created website, joining together top law firms and maritime law experts, to make them available to any agents in the maritime sector, such as ship builders, shipping owners, port authority, etc. that need them.

The Shiparrest Network has a complete directory including contact details and descriptions of the top law firms and lawyers specialised in maritime law in more than 177 countries, working on more than 2,500 harbours worldwide.

The site also includes specific tools to make releasing and arresting procedures easier for the law firms and maritime law experts registered in the site, e.g. the AIS system directory, which makes possible to find almost any trading ships and get to know where they are going in real time. You will be able to check the main tracking systems existing in the world via the webpage, by means of a convenient window system in "lightbox" script.

Apart from this, and to facilitate communication between lawyers and people interested in hiring them or looking into finding someone to solve their doubts, the webpage offers a chat system inspired by Facebook's chat, so visitors and users are able to interact in real time.

Finally, the site offers information about changes in legislation related to arrests and releases of ships in different countries, relevant news on maritime matters, information about international conventions and a blog, where all lawyers or experts on maritime law registered in the network will be able to publish their essays or news about their law firms.

The site is currently available in two languages, English and Spanish; You can see the English version here shiparrest.co.uk/en. We are planning to release it in French and German in the future, too.

First impressions about the website are positive from the sector, as the site displays individual sections for each law firm or freelance lawyer, offering contacting them by email or the social networks, and explaining the advantages of belonging to the Network (which are numerous). The website's developers expect an increase from the current 250 law firms and lawyers registered, to 500 law firms and lawyers in the next 12 months, becoming a benchmark to the sector. The Shiparrest Network's website was born from the joined work of a group of newly graduated students from M.A. in Maritime Law and the Spanish web developer company Onlinehuelva General Partnership.