Federal Maritime Commission
Washington, D.C. 20573 

NR 05 - 02

Chairman Blust Announces An Initiative for Publishing
Electronic Copies of Commission Decisions

FOR RELEASE - February 16, 2005

The Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission announces a new initiative for publishing Commission decisions issued between mid-June 1987 and 1996. The first group of these decisions will be posted on the Commission’s website today. This initial group includes decisions issued between mid-June 1987 and December 1988. As later decisions are compiled and converted to electronic form, the Commission will post those decisions on its website as well.

For a number of years, the Commission compiled and published bound volumes of its decisions. The last bound volume (Volume 28) published in 2000, includes Commission decisions issued between July 1985 and June 1987. Since 1996, the Commission has posted selected decisions on its website in electronic format at www.fmc.gov. Commission decisions issued between mid-June 1987 and 1996 (the time period between publication of Commission decisions in bound volume format and electronic format) however, have generally only been available in hard copy and upon request from the Office of the Secretary. This new initiative will essentially fill the publication gap for those Commission decisions issued between mid-June 1987 and 1996.

Chairman Blust remarked that he is pleased to see the initiation of this project. "Posting these decisions on our website will make the Commission’s policies and precedents more readily available to the maritime and legal communities."