In 2001, the European Commission published its so-called Ports Package, a first attempt at developing a European policy for seaports. The Ports Package includes a Directive on Market Access to Port Services, which will influence the port industry thoroughly and lead to fundamental changes in daily port operations. In this volume, academics as well as practising lawyers from France, Ireland, Italy and Belgium describe the legal framework for the several branches of the port sector, recalling the far-reaching practical implications of existing general EU law and discussing the latest versions of the Port Services Directive proposal. Completed by authoritative views from the head of the Commission's ports unit, a specialist MEP, and representatives from both the public and the private port sector, this book offers a fairly complete overview of existing port law as well as the main points of concern in the policy debate. Its purpose is to serve both as a policy background document and as a working tool for public and private port players, as well as for academics and lawyers.

PORTIUS is the world's first institution to specialize in the study of international and EU law on maritime and inland ports. This book is the inaugural lecture by PORTIUS chairman Eric van Hooydonk, illustrating the rich tradition and highly dynamic nature of port law and arguing that it is integral to maritime law. The lecture also highlights numerous deviations from the general law and the preference of ports not to be subject to legal regulation.

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive overview of modern seaports from a legal perspective. Further, it provides a basic toolkit for establishing a legal doctrine of seaports, the instruments of said toolkit being the very few legal norms specifically targeting seaports, which are examined as such rather than through the lens of other, more established disciplines, such as the law of the sea or transportation law. It is a first, necessary step toward giving seaports the status they rightfully deserve in legal studies. Despite centuries of international law studies and decades of EU law evolution, seaports have remained stuck in limbo. From a law of the sea perspective, seaports belong to the land, an approach that is often clearly reflected in national maritime legislation. The other branches of international law do not focus on seaports, since they are considered to belong to the sea. The port communities, for their part, have availed themselves of the “port specificity” concept. In recent decades, containerization has transformed ports into key hubs of the globalized economy, but also into vital checkpoints of the War on Terror, due to the security risks posed by the millions of sealed containers circulating worldwide. Moreover, tragic maritime incidents have shown that seaports are the only reliable sentinels of the seas, being the only places where the systematic inspection of ships is feasible. This has led to the adoption of specific international and EU rules. Those rules, however, remain fragmented, highly specialized and technical; as such, they are unsuitable for creating an organic legal seaport regime: this objective can only be achieved with a significant contribution from legal doctrine.

In twenty years, the globalization of trade has led to a change in scale that has upset the balance of power between the players in online containerized maritime transport and the logistics chain passing through European seaports. Three global shipping alliances dominate 90% of online containerized maritime transport, while further integrating port activities. Twelve Asian ports, eight of which are Chinese, are now among the top fifteen in the world. At the same time, Chinese interests, supported by public authorities and resources, are taking control of terminals and port companies in Europe, as part of the geopolitical project of the New Silk Roads. This economic and industrial context is emblematic of the challenges facing European competition law, which has so far accompanied rather than controlled these transformations. European competition rules will have to be mobilized in a global context, alongside the new rules on the control of foreign direct investment. This study takes stock of the new regulatory challenges in this sector of prime importance for the Union.