Time is right for harmony over General Average

摘要

Ship operators have long drawn comfort from the fact that a system is in place to ensure that after a casualty, the costs of proceeding with the voyage and getting the cargo to destination will be allocated between all the parties. That system is General Average, incorporated into contracts of carriage usually through the York Antwerp Rules in a version agreed in 1994. A botched attempt to update the Rules itself became a casualty: the embarrassing 2004 revision which has largely been ignored because of the way it was introduced and because its terms upset ship owners.