Part IV The Responsibilities of the Shipper, 21 The Shipper’s Common Law Obligations

Abstract

This chapter explores the common law obligations of the shippers. Contracts, whether general or specific, including contracts of affreightment, contain agreed (express) terms and may, subject to interpretation, also contain implied terms. Contracts of affreightment are invariably negotiated against a background of custom and commercial usage and are commonly subject to the carriers’ standard terms and conditions of carriage and the mandatory (or contractual) application of an international convention, such as the Hague or Hague-Visby Rules. In the carriage of goods by sea, certain obligations are implied by law and will be incorporated into the contract in the absence of agreement to the contrary. Although there is no formal list of cargoes which may be dangerous, hazardous, or harmful to the carrier’s ship or other cargoes aboard the ship, various statutes recognize that the shipper has certain obligations to the carrier with regard to cargo which is ‘fraught with danger or risk; perilous, hazardous, unsafe; injurious’. The chapter then considers the obligation of shippers to nominate a safe port.