This book is the result of a doctoral thesis undertaken at the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, supported by a scholarship from the International Max Planck Research School of Maritime Affairs. I therefore wish to express my gratitude to all persons within these institutions who made this project possible. First and foremost, I am indebted to my supervisor, Professor Dr. Rainer Lagoni, whose constant advice on the topic and related fields of research has been of indefinite value to me. My sincere thanks also go to my friends and colleagues at the Research School and the Institute, namely to Sole`ne Guggisberg, Lina Lumetzberger, Young-Kyung Yoon, Victor Chacon, Lief Bleyen and Tess Chemnitzer, who witnessed the progress of this work and made my time at the Institute so much more enjoyable. Barbara Schro¨der helped me with many practical aspects of this project, and Michael Friedman provided a lot of assistance in the final editing. Parts of this study have greatly benefited from a stay at the Rotterdam Institute for Shipping and Transport Law at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. I therefore wish to thank Professor Frank Smeele, who initiated my visit, and everyone else at the Institute and the Erasmus School of Law for an insightful and very pleasant time in Rotterdam. Last but not least, I want to thank my friends in Berlin, Hamburg and elsewhere for their support and encouragement. Mentioning everyone would render this paragraph a very long one—I trust that all of my friends know that they contributed, in many different ways, to the achievement of this work. Finally, I want to express my gratitude and my love to my parents, who have played a very unique role in supporting this venture.