Origins of ICMA

The first conference was conceived in Moscow in 1972. Michael van Gelder, then president of the Society of Maritime Arbitrators, Cedric Barclay and Clifford Clark, two future presidents of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association, and Roger Jambu-Merlin, then president of the Chambre Arbitrale Maritime de Paris were all attendees at an International Congress of Commercial Arbitrators which was being held in Moscow.

They decided there and then to stage their own impromptu Congress, the first International Congress of Maritime Arbitrators (ICMA). Professors Sergei Lebedev and George Maslov of Moscow provided the place and a large audience. ICMA was hence established in 1972, to provide a forum for maritime arbitrators and lawyers from around the world to exchange views and news of professional interest.

ICMA is neither a formal organization nor a legal entity. It does not have an office. There are no members. It is just a series of conferences which are held every 2 or 3 years in the spirit of a joint effort to promote maritime arbitration all over the world. To preserve the international character of the conferences, ICMA rotates from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Unlike other organizations, which may have an executive directorate, ICMA is an ad-hoc event which is arranged by the host organization. The ICMA Steering Committee is traditionally composed of four delegates: one from New York, one from London, one from the organizing committee of the previous ICMA and one from the organizing committee of the current ICMA. The primary duty of the 2 Steering Committee permanent members is to select the next venue for ICMA and to appoint the chairman of the ICMA Topics Committee. 

The ICMA Topics Committee has the important task of proposing topics, collecting the delegates’ papers and organizing the working sessions of the Congress. All papers are normally published in the Proceedings of the Congress.