The law is essential to the proper functioning of our society and to the development of everyone, and it governs all aspects of life, making it an extremely complex and comprehensive area in which there are many sub-categories such as business law, criminal law, children's law and maritime law. Every year, new laws are added to or replace existing ones, so keeping up to date with these changes is a time-consuming task. This is why lawyers specialise in certain areas or sub-areas and cannot afford to be experts in everything.

The legal sector is therefore in constant evolution and the demand for lawyers is constantly increasing, regardless of the branch. In today's example, we are going to talk about maritime law, because it is a sector that you don't hear much about if you don't live near the sea or the ocean, even though it is exciting and the demand is all over the world.

What training should I take to become a maritime lawyer?

As with most legal professions, you should be prepared to complete at least a Master's degree in maritime and port law, i.e. you have a minimum of 5 years of study to complete, i.e. 3 years of bachelor's degree and 2 years of master's degree, in order to obtain a diploma that will allow you to join the bar of a port city afterwards.

If you wish to work as pleasure vessels lawyers for example, you can join the "Maritime and Transport Law" master's degree in business law, taxation and accounting at the University of Aix-Marseille. You will then have the opportunity to register with the Marseille bar and can join or open a law firm in Monaco or elsewhere on the Côte d'Azur.

What other opportunities are there in maritime law?

By studying maritime law, you will have access to various branches of maritime law such as

• maritime insurance law
• maritime transport law
• shipping law
• Port law
• maritime administration law
• law of navigation
• maritime business law
• ship arrest
• maritime pollution

You will therefore have to deal with a wide variety of cases, settle atypical disputes and meet people with very different profiles. Working in the field of maritime law, you will regularly be required to work with foreign companies and individuals, so it is essential to have an excellent command of fluent English, business English and, of course, English as it relates to the law.