Lloyd's Shipping & Trade Law

Iran and the United States are reconceptualising passage through the Strait of Hormuz as a chargeable service, each in its own way, and the consequential fact for anyone who prices maritime risk is that neither scheme fits the machinery built to price it. Whatever governments have named them, these schemes are not insurance. They are a new category of cost, levied by sovereigns on transit itself, and their arrival will do little to resolve the uncertainty hanging over the Strait.

This article examines the structural relationship between the nautical fault exception and the seaworthiness obligation under the Hague-Visby Rules. The judicial expansion of seaworthiness has progressively narrowed the exception, confining it in practice to professional errors by competent seafarers, provided that the carrier's systemic obligations have been fulfilled. This article argues that abolishing the exception without acknowledging this development would impose liability on the carrier for a category of loss that it has already taken all available steps to prevent. Reform must therefore address the seaworthiness obligation.

Damages for a missed COA shipment

Commencement of laytime

The definition of "banking days"