Contact: David West (west@alpha.nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

1/15/2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES- Northwestern State University Associate Professor of Business John G. Williams was among a group of scholars who made presentations at the recent International Business and Economy Conference held in San Francisco.

Williams presented a paper "Death on the High Seas by Wrongful Act - The Effect on The Global Economy." The paper was also published in the conference proceedings.

According to Williams, the effect of the shipping and aviation industries on the world's economies is immense. In 1999, the total tonnage of cargo carried by ships sailing under the United States flag alone was more than 28 billion tons. There are over 28,000 merchant ships carrying cargo to the four corners of the earth. Williams said in that same year air passenger fare receipts totaled nearly $47 billion dollars.

In 1996, there were approximately 15,000 deaths recorded on the high seas.

"The cost of insuring the shipping and aviation industry for the wrongful death of a person on the high seas has a profound effect on the cost of doing business and
'The Death on The High Seas by Wrongful Act' has a direct relation to these cost," said Williams. "The paper explored the treatment of this Act by the United States courts,
what constitutes a wrongful act, who can bring an action under the Act and what an aggrieved party can recover."

Presenters at the conference were from Denmark, Finland, Japan, China, Korea and India and from throughout the United States.

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