Delay in marine insurance law

Abstract

Delay in marine adventure is an important and frequent phenomenon of maritime transport and it affects various parties and their interests under several types of marine insurance policies, including but not limited to hull and machinery, cargo, freight and loss of hire. Losses arising from delay are almost always excluded under the standard forms of these policies and under the Marine Insurance Act 1906 (MIA). This thesis traces back the common law origins of the exclusion, identifies the motivations behind the exclusion and submits that the risk of delay and some types of losses arising therefrom were not always excluded under the common law. By introducing distinctions among the types of delay, the work argues that the judgments in favour of the exclusion of delay losses shall be interpreted according to the type of delay and shall not be authority for all types of delay. The findings of the work accordingly clarify and considerably restrict the scope of the exclusion.

The thesis also tackles the MIA provisions pertaining to the impact of delay on voyage policies. It argues that the relevant provisions are not clear and do not entirely reflect their common law background.On the ground that they have not been litigated since the enactment of the MIA, the research assesses whether they are obsolete and proposes that the provisions should be retained subject to reforms.

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