Since the publication of the fifth edition in 2011 the world of maritime law has seen a number of significant developments. The 2007 Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, which the UK has ratified, will come into effect on 14 April 2015. However, the 2010 HNS Convention is still to come into force and progress on the 2009 Rotterdam Rules is moving at a snail’s pace with only three ratifications to date. The situation within the EU has continued to be dominated by developments in the saga of the ‘Italian torpedo’, where a party to an English arbitration agreement runs off to commence litigation in the courts of another EU Member State, in breach of their contractual undertaking. Following the ECJ’s decision in 2009 in The Front Comor – Case C-185/07; [2009] 1 AC 1138 – it is no longer possible to obtain an anti-suit injunction from the English courts in respect of the foreign proceedings. However, if an arbitral award is obtained and turned into a judgment under s.66 of the Arbitration Act 1996 and this happens before a judgment is given under the foreign proceedings, it may be possible to block enforcement of the foreign judgment at least in England by reference to art. 34 (3) of the Judgment Regulation. In West Tankers Inc v Allianz SpA, the shipowners obtained a final arbitration award in England declaring that they were under no liability to the insurers in respect of the collision and the Court of Appeal, [2012] 1 Lloyd’s Rep. 398, upheld the decision of Field J that the award should be converted into a judgment. Such a pre-emptive strike was successfully launched in The London Steam-Ship Owners’ Mutual Insurance Association Ltd v The Kingdom of Spain, The French State (The Prestige) [2013] EWHC 3188 (Comm); [2014] 1 Lloyd’s Rep. 309, where Spain and France brought criminal proceedings in Spain against the master of the Prestige in respect of the oil spill off the coast of Galicia in 2002. Attached to these proceedings was a claim for civil compensation to which the vessel’s P&I Club were joined and which claimed compensation far in excess of the shipowner’s limitation figure under the 1992 CLC. The Club commenced arbitration against France and Spain and obtained an award declaring that their liability would be subject to the terms of the shipowner’s insurance with the Club, including the ‘pay and be paid’ clause. In October 2014 Hamblen J held that the award could be converted into a judgment.