Deviation in the carriage of goods by sea

Abstract

Maritime Law, or admiralty law, is the body of rules, partly substantive, partly procedural, which has grown up around the shipping industry. It is a vast subject and geographic deviation from the vessel's route, which falls within its substantive sphere, is only a tiny fragment of that area in maritime law devoted to the carriage of goods by sea. Transportation of goods by water on some kind of floating structure is one of the earliest forms of commercial activity of which there is record, and references to the law of the sea abound in the sources which have come down from antiquity and from the middle ages. As the conditions of commercial activity develop and change, so must the laws regulating the carriage of goods by sea and in particular the principle of deviation, renew themselves from generation to generation. The principle of deviation in contracts of carriage of goods by sea emerged from the oldest form of insurance that is known - marine insurance. This thesis will not delve into an appreciation of the part played by marine insurance, but with the development of the principle of deviation in the United Kingdom and in Malta. The position in the United Kingdom will be dealt with in great detail since the supra-national nature of maritime law and its international aspect has allowed the courts of one country to look at the precedents or statutes of another country for inspiration or guidance in doubtful cases. This is what the Maltese judiciary has in many maritime decisions done when faced with lacunae in our law. The principle of deviation, with specific reference to its effects, experienced various interpretations throughout the 20th century. Malta has recognised this principle from the early days, as evidenced in the Perellos Code. International conventions such as The United Nations Carriage of Goods by Sea, 1978 (The Hague Rules), the Visby Protocol and The Hamburg Rules have all, the former of which has been incorporated into Maltese law, attempted to eliminate the existing doubts surrounding this principle with the aim of rectifying and unifying the position. This thesis attempts to examine whether this has indeed been achieved and proposes amendments into Maltese legislation to bring the Maltese position in line with the leading maritime nations, particularly the United Kingdom.