Frank L. Wiswall, Jr., practices as a Proctor
and Advocate in Admiralty from his home town
of Castine, Maine, and also writes and teaches
in the field of maritime international law. He
previously practiced in New York City,
Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. From
1979-84 Dr. Wiswall served as Chairman of
the Legal Committee of the International
Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized
agency of the United Nations headquartered in
London; he had earlier been Vice-Chairman
from 1974-79. He has additionally been a
delegate to many international diplomatic
conferences establishing maritime law, including
several International Labor Organization (ILO)
conferences on seafaring labor, the IMO
conferences on Marine Pollution, Hazardous
and Noxious Substances, Passengers and
Luggage, Safety of Life at Sea, Limitation of
Liability and Maritime Terrorism, as well as the
United Nations Conferences on the Law of the
Sea and Carriage of Goods by Sea.
Dr. Wiswall has served as lecturer and Visiting
Professor of Maritime Law at the University of
Virginia, Cornell and Tulane, and currently at
the World Maritime University in Malm¿,
Sweden. He is a Governor and Fellow of the
IMO International Maritime Law Institute
(IMLI) in Msida, Malta. He has been since
1989 an Executive Councillor of the Comit¿
Maritime International (CMI), the parent body
of over 50 national associations of maritime law
including the Maritime Law Association of the
United States. Dr. Wiswall has been a member
of the MLAUS for over 30 years and has
chaired three of its committees.
In 1992 Dr. Wiswall became Editor-in-Chief of
the four volumes of Benedict on Admiralty
devoted to maritime international law; he has
also authored a book dealing with the legal
history of Admiralty as well as numerous articles
and papers on maritime law, eccl