Aspects of The Hague Rules

Approximately four-fifths of all carriage of goods by sea are governed by the Hague Rules. The success of the Rules is well recognised, their importance self-evident. Nonetheless they have been the subject of regular scrutiny with a view to improvement and reform. Attention has focussed on various issues, among them, two central provisions examined in this book. The first is article X concerning the legal scope of the Rules. This question was debated for twenty years and apparently settled in 1968, only to be reopened since by the United Nations as part of an impending reform of the Rules.The second part of the book examines one of the two fundamental duties of the carrier, that of due diligence in preparing his ship for sea. This is a duty of Anglo-saxon origin which might easily be applied differently in different countries. The book is a comparative study chiefly in the law of two major trading nations of different legal tradition, England and France. Where differences of application are found these are examined for traces of domestic legal ideas which might have slipped uninvited into the Rules.It is hoped that this study will add, not only to knowledge of the way in which the Rules are applied at this time, but also to an understanding of the problems that confront the draftsman of law uniform to countries of differing legal tradition.