Drafting contracts can be tricky. And those who have done it will be familiar with some of the challenges that can arise. Which clauses to include? How does a particular clause work with other clauses? Is this clause clear? Could AI technology help with this task?
BIMCO is committed to helping the industry through practical tools that will make their life easier. As part of this commitment, we have supported DTU (Technical University of Denmark) student, Gianfranco Bardi Aparicio, in the development of his master thesis to research how technology could assist. The thesis lays the foundation for utilising advanced technology to automate the detection, analysis and management of obligations and potential contradictions in maritime contracts.
The project leveraged the latest AI technologies to create a model which was trained on a highly specialised charter party dataset to ensure accuracy. The model identifies legal entities, captures relationships such as rights, duties and permissions – and flags contradictory clauses with minimal human intervention.
The thesis proved to us that this is indeed possible – but it is a labour-intensive process which requires a lot of human oversight through data validation. If further developed, this will be an invaluable tool for those who work with maritime contracts. A practical assistive tool that can help reduce risk and uncertainty when the contract is being negotiated and drafted, thereby significantly reducing the risk of disputes at a later stage.
We would like to thank Gianfranco for his valuable contribution and congratulate him on finishing with the highest possible grade.
