Presentation of the 2013 International Maritime Prize to Dr. José Eusebio Salgado y Salgado

Secretary-General, International Maritime Organization

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this ceremony for the presentation of the International Maritime Prize – an annual event that today marks the continuation of a tradition that started more than 30 years ago.

And it gives me even greater pleasure to introduce the recipient of the Prize for 2013, the distinguished academic and author Dr. José Eusebio Salgado y Salgado whose long association with the Organization dates back to the 1980s when he regularly attended IMO meetings representing Mexico.

Dr. Salgado y Salgado holds a degree in Law and Diplomatic Sciences and a doctorate in International Relations and Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He is the author of the Manual de Derecho Internacional Marítimo (International Maritime Law Manual), which has been the basis of various studies and specialized research into maritime transport in the Spanish-speaking world.

In a distinguished career spanning more than 40 years, he has been a full-time professor at UNAM, where he teaches maritime law, international public law, international private law, the history of Mexican diplomacy and gives a seminar on Mexican foreign policy.

He has supervised nearly 300 theses during his career and, among others, was awarded the Mexican National Prize for Legislation and Maritime Law in 1988.

Dr. Salgado y Salgado is a member of the Standing Committee of the International Maritime Arbitration Organization based in Paris, and of the International Bar Association, the London Maritime Arbitrators Association and the International Law Association, all based in London.

He has written over 90 articles on subjects within his area of specialization in national and foreign journals and has published six books on international maritime law, including one specializing on the work of the International Maritime Organization, its tasks and achievements. His has been, I am sure you will agree, a career of great distinction and he is a very worthy recipient of the International Maritime Prize.

Before affording myself the great pleasure of presenting the International Maritime Prize for 2013 to Dr. Salgado y Salgado, I would like to invite His Excellency Mr. Diego Gómez Pickering, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Permanent Representative of Mexico to IMO, to address the meeting.

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