Holes in the net - Application of Marine Insurance Law Principles to Claims by IUU Fishing Vessels

The competition is open to all U.S. law school students and receives entries from all over the United States. The contest offers a cash prize to the winner, as well as an all-expenses-paid visit to Gard’s New York office, where the winning student learns about the work of Gard, as well as the opportunity to present their paper and explain it further.

For the last four years, Gard has participated in the final article review and the judging of the top entries submitted in the competition. We have been impressed by the contestant’s creativity in topic selection and the quality of their legal research.

This year’s winner is Rebecca Prentiss Pskowski of Tulane University, who wrote an article entitled “Holes in the Net – Application of Marine Insurance Law Principles to Claims by IUU Fishing Vessels”.

Ms. Pskowski has recently graduated with her LL.M. in Admiralty, and accepted a position as an attorney with the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington D.C. She previously held a position as a law clerk for a federal judge in New York, the Hon. Charles S. Haight, Jr., and earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Harvard University. She also holds a US Merchant Mariner’s license (1600-ton Ocean Mate).

In her article, Ms. Pskowski analyzes international case law to assess the possibility that vessels conducting Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing are obtaining marine insurance, and whether marine insurers may be able to deny coverage due to illegality of activities. 

Gard is a signatory to the Insurance Industry’s Statement against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing underpinning our commitment to tackle IUU fishing through education, awareness building, risk management and insurance underwriting. 

We congratulate Ms. Pskowski on her winning article which we have the pleasure to share here, and we look forward to her visit to our New York office, scheduled to take place in early October.  

The views expressed in the article are those of the author and should not be construed as reflecting the views of the Department of Homeland Security or the US Coast Guard.

You can read the winning article here.