By Karl-Johan Gombrii, President of the Comit Maritime International

It has become a tradition for Professor Francesco Berlingieri to publish a new edition of Arrest of Ships every five years or so. The first edition was published in 1992 and the fifth is being published in 2011.

It has also become a tradition for the current President of the Comit Maritime International to write the foreword to each edition, the previous having been written by Alan Philip (2), Patrick Griggs and Jean Serge Rohart. This fact, as well as the fact that the book is being published under the auspices of the CMI, with its logo predominantly on the cover, illustrates the very close and very fond relationship between Professor Berlingieri and the CMI, within which organisation Professor Berlingieri has been a leading personality for more than five decades and whose President ad honorem he is. As the current President of the CMI it is therefore my pleasure and honour to preface this fifth edition of Arrest of Ships .

During the preparatory work for the Arrest Convention from 1999, Professor Berlingieri represented the CMI, which has observer status with both UNCTAD and IMO, the two UN organisations involved in the preparation of the Arrest Convention. As an observer delegate for the CMI, Professor Berlingieri was the undisputed and authoritative source of knowledge regarding the law on arrest ships and the various attempts at unifying it. In so acting, he did an extraordinary job, not only for the CMI but also for the other delegates, including the undersigned, to the various working groups and finally the Diplomatic Conference, which in 1999, adopted the new Arrest Convention. It is safe to say that Professor Berlingieri has contributed very significantly and very constructively to that Convention, and that very few, if any, can match his knowledge of the Convention and its origins.