Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics

 

Special Issue on: "Governance and Regulation of Seaports"

Guest Editors: Carlos Pestana Barros and Rui Cunha Marques, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal

Governance of seaports has dramatically changed over the last two decades. Devolution, commercialisation, corporatisation and privatisation are concepts associated with the reforms that happened worldwide and that have changed the structures of governance in recent years. Governance means ‘the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented)’ and nowadays it assumes in any sector, and particularly in transportation, a key aspect to their success.

These ‘new’ models of governance are accompanied with growth in importance of the private sector both in operation and ownership of seaports. Even within the public sector there was, in many countries, a juridical and institutional privatisation, that is, a ‘flight’ out of the public (administrative) law to the private (commercial) law. For these reasons, regulation starts to be a central issue in the seaports sector. Several countries are creating agencies with regulatory functions in seaports intending to correct the existing market failures on behalf of the public interest.

This special issue focuses on the different experiences of structure of governance in the seaports sector and its regulation. We encourage authors to present case studies of seaport sector reforms that may provide good lessons to other countries. We would also like to see practices of sector regulation and in which scope they are being implemented. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a form of regulation by contract where the duties and rights of the public and private partners are established as well as privatisation in general are other relevant themes. The issues of competition and cooptition in seaports are welcomed. As governance and market structure substantially influence seaports performance, empirical studies in this scope are also invited along with case studies of governance of seaports in developed countries.

Subject Coverage
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, areas of future of Eurasian logistics in:

• Devolution of seaports
• Commercialisation and corporatisation of seaports
• Privatisation and public-private partnerships (PPPs)
• Competition and cooptition
• Incentives and regulation of seaports
• Public services obligations of seaports
• Performance management of different governance models
• Board composition and agency problems
• Pay and performance in seaports
• Human and social capital in seaports performance
• Governance in developed countries

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page

Important Dates

Full paper due: 31 December, 2009

Notification of acceptance: 31 March, 2010

Final version of the paper due: 31 June, 2010