Charlie Papavizas New Book Journey to the Jones Act Featured in TradeWinds

Winston & Strawn partner Charlie Papavizas was featured in a recent TradeWinds article highlighting his new book Journey to the Jones Act—U.S. Merchant Marine Policy 1776-1920. The Jones Act is known for reserving domestic trades to ships that are built at a domestic shipyard, crewed by Americans, controlled by a U.S. company, and fly the U.S. flag, but in his book, Charlie argues that what the law is known for today is not what its namesake, Senator Wesley Jones, was focused on when he shepherded the Merchant Marine Act, 1920 through Congress. After researching the 144 years of American history leading up to the law’s passage, Charlie explains that the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, was intended to pave the way for selling off a massive government-controlled fleet of cargo ships built for World War I and to maintain a substantial U.S. presence on the world’s oceans. The Merchant Marine Act was the culmination of 144 years of merchant marine policy ideas.

Charlie stated that he wrote Journey to the Jones Act to fill a gap in the public discourse about the act and hopes it will show how rich merchant marine policy is in the U.S. and provide insight into how intertwined it is with the nation’s history. He concludes in the book that the Jones Act did cement into law the necessity of having a U.S.-flag merchant fleet trading in international markets.

Read the full article.