Seaworthiness in the carriage of goods by sea

Abstract

The subject of carriage of goods by sea is no new topic. It dates back to the first days of shipping and has over the centuries undergone much evolution. At first, the laws regulating the carriage of goods by sea were national laws with the governing law being the British law. This created a problem because there were too many differing laws which resulted in uncertainty and confusion. For this reason the need was felt to try and harmonise these laws through international conventions. Unfortunately this goal was not achieved as although many adopted the first convention (the Hague Rules), not everyone did. However, in time, an even greater problem emerged and that was that this convention was becoming outdated. So we later had the introduction of the Visby Protocol, which was designed to amend the Hague Rules, followed by two other conventions, the Hamburg and the Rotterdam Rules. These last two conventions tried to tackle the outdated nature of the Hague and the Hague Visby Rules but up to today they have not been successful, in the sense that not many countries have incorporated them into their laws. The aim of this thesis is to deal with a specific obligation of the carrier as found under these conventions and that is the carrier's obligation of providing a seaworthy vessel. This will be done by using Common law as a starting point to make a comparative analysis of how the obligation has evolved from Common Law and throughout the various conventions, highlighting their effects on the parties involved with the ultimate goal of making future proposals.