Hague–Visby Rules

The Hague–Visby Rules is a set of international rules for the international carriage of goods by sea. They are a slightly updated version of the original Hague Rules which were drafted in Brussels in 1924.

The premise of the Hague–Visby Rules (and of the earlier English common law from which the Rules are drawn) was that a carrier typically has far greater bargaining power than the shipper, and that to protect the interests of the shipper/cargo-owner, the law should impose some minimum affreightment obligations upon the carrier. However, the Hague and Hague–Visby Rules were hardly a charter of new protections for cargo-owners; the English common law prior to 1924 provided more protection for cargo-owners, and imposed more liabilities upon "common carriers".

The official title of the Hague Rules the "International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law relating to Bills of Lading". After being amended by the Brussels Amendments (officially the "Protocol to Amend the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of Lading") in 1968, the Rules became known colloquially as the Hague–Visby Rules.

A final amendment was made in the SDR Protocol in 1979. Many countries declined to adopt the Hague–Visby Rules and stayed with the 1924 Hague Rules. Some other countries which upgraded to Hague-Visby subsequently failed to adopt the 1979 SDR protocol.

Implementing legislation

The Hague–Visby Rules were incorporated into English law by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971; and English lawyers should note the provisions of the statute as well as the text of the rules. For instance, although Article I(c) of the Rules exempts live animals and deck cargo, section 1(7) restores those items into the category of "goods". Also, although Article III(4) declares a bill of lading to be a mere "prima facie evidence of the receipt by the carrier of the goods", the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992 section 4 upgrades a bill of lading to be "conclusive evidence of receipt".

Under Article X, the Rules apply if ("a) the bill of lading is issued in a contracting State, or (b) the carriage is from a port in a contracting State, or (c) the contract (of carriage) provides that(the) Rules ... are to govern the contract". If the Rules apply, the entire text of Rules is incorporated into the contract of carriage, and any attempt to exclude the Rules is void under Article III (8).

Carriers' duties

Under the Rules, the carrier's main duties are to "properly and carefully load, handle, stow, carry, keep, care for, and discharge the goods carried" and to "exercise due diligence to ... make the ship seaworthy" and to "... properly man, equip and supply the ship". It is implicit (from the common law) that the carrier must not deviate from the agreed route nor from the usual route; but Article IV(4) provides that "any deviation in saving or attempting to save life or property at sea or any reasonable deviation shall not be deemed to be an infringement or breach of these Rules".

The carrier's duties are not "strict", but require only a reasonable standard of professionalism and care; and Article IV allows the carrier a wide range of situations exempting them from liability on a cargo claim. These exemptions include destruction or damage to the cargo caused by: fire, perils of the sea, Act of God, and act of war. A controversial provision exempts the carrier from liability for "neglect or default of the master ... in the navigation or in the management of the ship". This provision is considered unfair to the shipper; and both the later Hamburg Rules (which require contracting states to denounce the Hague–Visby Rules) and Rotterdam Rules (which are not yet in force) refuse exemption for negligent navigation and management.

Also, whereas the Hague–Visby Rules require a ship to be seaworthy only "before and at the beginning" of the voyage, under the Rotterdam Rules the carrier will have to keep the ship seaworthy throughout the voyage (although this new duty will be to a reasonable standard that is subject to the circumstances of being at sea).

Shipper's duties

By contrast, the shipper has fewer obligations (mostly implicit), namely: (i) to pay freight; (ii) to pack the goods sufficiently for the journey; (iii) to describe the goods honestly and accurately; (iv) not to ship dangerous cargoes (unless agreed by both parties); and (v) to have the goods ready for shipment as agreed; (q.v."notice of readiness to load"). None of these shippers' obligations are enforceable under the Rules; instead they would give rise to a normal action in contract.

Criticism

With only 10 articles, the rules have the virtue of brevity, but they have several faults. When, after 44 years of experience, the 1924 rules were updated with a single minor amendment, they still covered only carriage wholly by sea (thereby ignoring multi-modal transport), and they barely acknowledged the container revolution of the 1950s. Also, UNCTAD felt that they had actually diluted the protection to shippers once provided by English common law, and proposed instead the more modern Hamburg Rules of 1978, which were embraced by many developing countries, but largely ignored by ship-operating nations. The modern Rotterdam Rules, with some 96 articles, have far more scope and cover multi-modal transport but remain far from general implementation.

Ratifications

A list of ratifications and denouncements of the three conventions is shown below:

Country	Hague	Hague-Visby	Hague-SDR	Comments
	1924	1968	1979
Algeria	Template:Site active
Angola	Template:Site active
Antigua and Barbuda	Template:Site active
Argentina	Template:Site active
Aruba	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Australia	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active
Bahamas	Template:Site active
Barbados	Template:Site active
Belgium	Template:Site active	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Belize	Template:Site active
Bolivia	Template:Site active
Cameroon	Template:Site active
Cape Verde	Template:Site active
China
Croatia	Template:Site active	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Template:Country data Côte d'Ivoire	Template:Site active
Cuba	Template:Site active
Cyprus	Template:Site active
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Template:Site active
Denmark	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Dominica	Template:Site active
East Germany	Template:Site active		Template:Site active
Egypt	Template:Site active	Template:Site inactive
Ecuador	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Fiji	Template:Site active
Finland	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
France	Template:Site active	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Gambia	Template:Site active
Template:Country data Georgia		Template:Site active
Greece			Template:Site active
Grenada	Template:Site active
Guinea-Bissau	Template:Site active
Guyana	Template:Site active
Hong Kong	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Hungary	Template:Site active
Iran	Template:Site active
Ireland	Template:Site active
Israel	Template:Site active
Italy	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Jamaica	Template:Site active
Japan	Template:Site inactive		Template:Site active
Kenya	Template:Site active
Kiribati	Template:Site active
Kuwait	Template:Site active
Latvia	Template:Site active	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Lebanon	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site inactive
Lithuania	Template:Site active	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Luxembourg			Template:Site active
Template:Flagdeco Macao	Template:Site active
Madagascar	Template:Site active
Malaysia	Template:Site active
Mauritius	Template:Site active
Mexico			Template:Site active
Monaco	Template:Site active
Mozambique	Template:Site active
Nauru	Template:Site active
Netherlands	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
New Zealand			Template:Site active
Nigeria	Template:Site inactive
North Borneo	Template:Site active
Norway	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Template:Country data Palestine	Template:Site active
Papua New Guinea	Template:Site active
Paraguay	Template:Site inactive
Peru	Template:Site inactive
Poland	Template:Site active	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Portugal	Template:Site active
Template:Country data Portuguese India	Template:Site active
Portuguese Timor	Template:Site active
Romania	Template:Site inactive
Russia			Template:Site active
Template:Flagicon Saint Christopher and Nevis	Template:Site active
Saint Lucia	Template:Site active
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Template:Site inactive
São Tomé and Príncipe	Template:Site active
Template:Country data Kingdom of Sarawak	Template:Site active
Senegal	Template:Site active
Seychelles	Template:Site active
Sierra Leone	Template:Site active
Singapore	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Somalia	Template:Site active
Slovenia	Template:Site active
Solomon Islands	Template:Site active
Spain			Template:Site active
Sri Lanka	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Sweden	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Switzerland	Template:Site active	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Syria	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Template:Country data Tanganyika	Template:Site active
Tonga	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
Trinidad and Tobago	Template:Site active
Turkey	Template:Site active
Tuvalu	Template:Site active
United Kingdom	Template:Site inactive	Template:Site active	Template:Site active
United States	Template:Site active
West Germany	Template:Site active
Yugoslavia	Template:Site active

See also

• Seaworthiness (law)
• Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971
• Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992

External links

• Full text of the 1924 convention, 1968 Template:Webarchive and 1979 protocols.
• Signatures and ratifications of the original convention, as well as the 1968 and 1979 protocols (in French).
• Admiralty Law Guide has a brief discussion with useful links