Geopolitical Disruption in Shipping: Sanctions, War, and Force Majeure

Richard L. Kilpatrick, Jr.

ISBN: 9781509983216

Published: May 2026

Format: Hardcover

Language: English

Publisher: Hart Publishing

Description

Geopolitical volatility — wars, sanctions, trade barriers and statecraft — is generating physical and economic obstacles that disrupt shipping activities worldwide, producing commercial disputes that test the limits of contract law. This book examines how the shipping industry is adapting to these pressures, first surveying physical disruption (war, unrest, piracy) before turning to purely economic disruption caused by sanctions and other tools of trade warfare. Each category is analysed through its geopolitical and regulatory context, industry adaptations, and cross-jurisdictional case law, giving practitioners a structured framework for understanding the contractual rights and responsibilities engaged by geopolitical shock.

Key Features

Distinguishes physical disruption (war, unrest, piracy) from purely economic disruption (sanctions, trade wars) as two structurally related but analytically distinct categories of geopolitical risk.

Surveys how force majeure clauses, frustration, and impossibility doctrines have been applied — and stretched — by courts and arbitrators facing geopolitically driven disputes.

Draws on cross-jurisdictional case law to show how the same disruptive event can produce different contractual outcomes depending on governing law and forum.

Coverage

Topics include: war risk and war exclusion clauses; piracy and maritime unrest; sanctions-based impossibility and frustration; export controls and trade wars; force majeure drafting and interpretation; and the commercial fallout of chokepoint crises such as the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea disruptions.

About the Authors

Richard L. Kilpatrick, Jr. is a Visiting Professor of Law and an Associate Professor of Law at the William H. Bowen School of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He holds a JD from Tulane University Law School and is a member of the Illinois Bar and the Maritime Law Association of the United States. He previously held faculty positions at business schools in South Carolina and Illinois and practiced maritime law in Chicago. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow, Academic Visitor, and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Maritime Law at the National University of Singapore, and his articles have appeared in the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, the Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce, the Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, and the British Insurance Law Association Journal.

Table of Contents

Part I: Physical Disruption — War; Unrest; Piracy.

Part II: Economic Disruption — Sanctions; Statecraft and Trade Wars.

Why buy this book?

For counsel advising shipowners, charterers, P&I clubs, or commodity traders, this book turns a decade of scattered case law on war, sanctions, and force majeure into a single reference. It is directly useful for drafting and litigating disputes tied to the Red Sea crisis, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and for assessing how courts are likely to treat sanctions-based impossibility claims going forward.

Keywords

geopolitical risk, shipping law, sanctions, force majeure, war risk, maritime law, trade wars, frustration, impossibility, charterparties

Target Audience

Maritime lawyers, shipping law practitioners, P&I clubs, arbitrators, in-house counsel at shipowning and chartering companies, academics in international commercial law

Genre

Maritime Law, Shipping Law, International Commercial Law

Q&A

What does this book cover? It examines how geopolitical volatility — war, unrest, piracy, sanctions, and trade wars — disrupts shipping activities and generates commercial disputes under charterparties, marine insurance, and related contracts.

Who is this book for? Maritime lawyers, P&I clubs, shipowners and charterers, arbitrators, and academics working on international commercial and shipping law.

Does it cover sanctions-related disputes? Yes — the second part of the book is dedicated to economic disruption, including sanctions and export controls as tools of statecraft.

Is the case law international in scope? Yes, the book draws on cross-jurisdictional case law to compare how courts in different jurisdictions treat the same disruptive events.

Where can I buy Geopolitical Disruption in Shipping: Sanctions, War, and Force Majeure? You can order it directly from CLNZ Books, with secure worldwide shipping.

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