Undeclared deck cargo and carrier’s right to limit Hague-Visby Rules? Canadian court says ‘yes’.

In De Wolf Maritime Safety BV v Traffic-Tech International Inc (‘The Cap Jackson’) 2017 FC 23, the Federal Court in Canada has held that (1) undeclared on-deck carriage did not prevent the application of the Hague-Visby Rules to the bill of lading and (2) that the carrier was entitled to rely on the limitation provisions in art. IV(5) of the Hague-Visby Rules. The decision on both points is in accordance with English law on the Hague-Visby Rules and deck cargo.

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Professor Simon Baughen

Professor Simon Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law in September 2013 (previously Reader at the University of Bristol Law School). Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world. Simon's book on Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is already well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law. Simon is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in:Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.

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