• Course name/number: ____ Law of the Cruise Industry
• Prerequisites: Successful completion of L1.
• Credit hours: 3
• General education tags: None
• Description:  The law governing the cruise industry is complex, varied, and derives from multiple sources. This course surveys that law and explores how it operates in practice.  

• Name: Richard Bales / J. Michael Cavanaugh
• Contact information: mobile 859-442-8837; r-bales@onu.edu
• Office hours: Before or after class I’m fair game; come by any time and I’ll see you if I can; email me if you’d like a more formal appointment.

Topics studied in this course will include: 

1. Ship ownership and registry; 
2. Flag state law; 
3. Shipbuilding contracts; 
4. Laws and regulations governing cruise ship operation; 
5. Law governing labor/employment of cruise industry employees; 
6. Liability for injuries (on and off the ship), criminal acts, and terrorism; 
7. Insurance; U.S. Common Carrier regulations; Cabotage – the right to freedom of navigation; 
8. Safety rules and regulations; 
9. Environmental concerns and laws; 
10. Consumer protection; 
11. Passenger privacy issues in a global environment;
12. Sales and distribution of cruise packages.

Required: Collected materials.

• Course objectives: The successful Employment Law student will be (1) prepared to participate in class by presenting assigned cases, statutes, regulations, treaties, contracts,  and other material, and by responding to questions, and participating in class discussion of the assigned materials;  (2) familiar with the business model and operations of the cruise industry; (3) able to exercise sound professional judgment in dealing with a variety of situations that may occur in cruise law practice; (4) able to answer essay questions calling for the rules, standards and doctrines related to the material covered in the assigned reading; (5) able to identify the legal issues in a novel fact pattern and use written legal analysis and advocacy to predict how a court would resolve those issues in light of the applicable law; and (6) able to prepare an in-depth written analysis of an open issue in the law of the cruise industry. 
• Outcomes & assessment: Employment Law is a doctrinally complex area of law fraught with opportunities to commit malpractice. Students should be able to demonstrate mastery of the legal doctrine by either (1) in a three-sequential-hour open-book individually taken essay exam, identifying the legal issues in a novel fact pattern and using written legal analysis to predict how a court would resolve those issues in light of the applicable law; or (2) drafting a research paper on a topic related to the law of the cruise industry. The final grade will be calculated:
  • 80% final exam or research article
  • 20% class attendance, preparedness, participation. 

Students may miss up to ___ classes without penalty. After that, a student will be considered to have dropped the course. When you miss a class, you are responsible for everything discussed or distributed in class, and for getting notes, handouts, etc. from a trusted fellow student.

ONU is dedicated to providing an equitable educational experience for all enrolled students. Universal course policies applicable to all courses can be found at the following link: https://my.onu.edu/registrars_office/policies. This website includes:

• Academic Dishonesty Policy
• Academic Accommodations Policy
• Health and Safety Policy
• Title IX Policy
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement

Using electronic devices in the classroom is fine so long as you are respectful of other students (no shopping, cute puppy videos, porn, etc.).

[To be added.]

If we do not cover all the material in a given class, then for the next class please review the material we did not get to in the prior class and read the entire assignment for the next class. We will cover the assigned material in the assigned order, even if the dates may change.

1. Ownership & registry
2. Flag State Law
   1. Registry Laws – International Open Registers
   2. Class Requirements – Annual and Special Surveys
3. Shipbuilding Contracts
   1. Vessel Purchase & Sale Agreements BIMCO SALEFORM 2012
   2. Charters – Bareboat, Time, Voyage Charters
   3. Full Ship Sales Agreements
4. Cruise Ship Operation
5. Labor & Employment
   1. Crewing Agreements
   2. CBAs
   3. On-Board Concessions
   4. MLC 2006
6. Limitation of Liability
   1. US Limitation – 46 US Code §183
   2. Athens Convention and 2002 Protocol
   3. Passenger Ticket Provisions 
   4. Medical officer
   5. Shore excursions 
   6. Shipboard & Terminal Criminal Acts
7. Insurance
   1. Hull & Machinery
   2. Protection & Indemnity
   3. Products Liability
8. US Common Carrier Regulations
   1. Shipping Act
   2. FMC Regulation
   3. Antitrust Immunity for US-Foreign Sailings
9. Cabotage 
   1. US-build requirements & vessel financing arrangements exception – 12106(e)
   2. PVSA – PR Exception – USVI exclusion
   3. Cruises to Nowhere
   4. Nearby and Distant Foreign Ports Exceptions (19 CFR §4.80a)
   5. MarAd Small Vessel Waivers
10. Safety Regulation
    1. IMO Conventions 
    2. SOLAS 
    3. STCW
    4. ISPS
    5. US Coast Guard – control verification inspections
    6. Public Health – CDC COVID-19 Restrictions
11. Environment
    1. SOLAS & MARPOL
    2. IMO2020 – scrubber compliance and ECAs
    3. US EPA Vessel General Permit
12. Consumer Protection
    1. US PL 89-777
    2. FMC Certificate requirements
    3. Passenger Refund Regulations
    4. State laws (FL Sellers of Travel registration, State Consumer Law)
    5. UK – ABTA
    6. EU
13. Passenger Privacy Issues, and GDPR
14. Sales and Distribution
    1. Direct Sales – eCommerce
    2. Travel Sellers
    3. Wholesalers  

Deadlines (all are 5:00p; please submit everything by email to r-bales@onu.edu):

• 2/3/23:            Topics due.
• 2/17/23:          One-paragraph abstract and brief (< 1 page) outline due.
• 3/24/23:          First draft due.
• 4/14/23:          Second draft due.
• 5/5/23:            Final article due.      

The following criteria will be used in determining this part of the grade: structure, depth of analysis, research, grammar, bluebooking proficiency (perfection is not required but you should at least be in the ballpark), and density of writing.  These criteria are not necessarily directly proportional:  if your grammar is so poor that I cannot understand analysis, do not expect a high grade. 

The article should be roughly 7500 words, but do not pad your word count. See “density of writing” in the previous paragraph; see also papers.ssrn.com/abstract_id=907143. 

You may choose your topics on a first-come, first-reserved basis, beginning immediately, by e-mailing me.  You may choose from a topic on the attached list, or you may choose your own.  On the email reserving your topic, please provide me with your name, your topic, and the topic number if your topic is from the attached list.  If your topic is not from the attached list, please include a one-paragraph description of your topic.  Choose a novel legal topic – one that allows you to argue for a position that has not yet been advanced in a law review article.  You are not ineluctably tied to your topic selection.  If subsequent research pulls you toward a tangential issue, just let me know and obtain my approval. (I require approval not because I want to limit your ability to choose topics, but because I want to make sure that your topic is not overly broad. You could write multiple volumes on “sex discrimination”, so that would not be a good topic.)

For general guidance on choosing a topic, structuring your argument, writing your article, etc., see Eugene Volokh’s Academic Legal Writing (any edition; our library has several copies). You should at least glance through this book before you start working on your article (or on your Note, if you are on Law Review).

            I will not, under any circumstances, accept any late articles.  Plan to have your article prepared early in case an emergency requires your absence on or near the due date.  I need the articles in on time so I can timely submit final grades.

We all learn better writing techniques from having someone critique our written work.  If you do not turn in drafts, you will learn little from the writing experience. Please submit drafts to me by email in Microsoft Word so I can make comments using Track Changes.  I will be happy (I really mean this – do not feel like you are imposing on me by sending me a third or fourth draft) to review additional drafts throughout the semester as long as you submit them to me at least ten days before the final due date. When I receive a draft, I will reply to you quickly to confirm that I received it; if you do not receive a quick reply please contact me to ensure I received it. I try to get my comments back to you within a week; if you have not heard from me in that time, please email me to make sure I still have it.

I review drafts in the order I receive them. If you submit a draft a few days before a deadline, you’re likely to get a much quicker turn-around than if you submit it at 5:00p on the due date.

This is the last significant writing experience that many of you will have in law school before you graduate and begin practice. It is my responsibility to ensure that when you leave this course, you have the research and writing skills necessary to practice successfully.  I take this responsibility very seriously.  (I have a personal interest in the issue; if an ONUL graduate is a poor writer, the legal community will think poorly not only of that graduate, but also of ONUL as an educational institution – and therefore of me.)  If you are unwilling to do the work it takes to ensure that your article is grammatical, understandable, and demonstrates a basic familiarity with the Bluebook and with employment discrimination law, then I suggest writing the exam or taking a different course. 

I have higher expectations than you probably are accustomed to for student-written articles. You likely will work harder on this article than you have ever worked on a paper before. Your doing so will enable me to give a glowing recommendation to your prospective employers on your research/writing/analysis skills – the skills most in demand by legal employers. Also, if you look at my resume (available online), you’ll note a long list of co-authored articles. Most of those articles were written by students in one of my courses. Those articles give you a pretty good idea of what I am looking for in your article.