General average

For Generalised average in Maths, see Generalized mean.

Admiralty law
History
Ordinamenta et consuetudo maris Amalfian Laws Hanseatic League
Features
Freight rate General average Marine insurance Marine salvage Maritime lien Ship mortgage Ship registration Ship transport Shipping
Contracts of affreightment
Bill of lading Charter-party
Types of charter-party
Bareboat charter Demise charter Time charter Voyage charter
Parties
Carrier Charterer Consignee Consignor Shipbroker Ship-manager Ship-owner Shipper Stevedore
Judiciary
Admiralty court Vice admiralty court
International conventions
Hague-Visby Rules Hamburg Rules Rotterdam Rules UNCLOS Maritime Labour Convention
International organisations
International Maritime Organization London Maritime Arbitrators Association

The law of general average is a legal principle of maritime law according to which all parties in a sea venture proportionally share any losses resulting from a voluntary sacrifice of part of the ship or cargo to save the whole in an emergency. In the exigencies of hazards faced at sea, crew members often have precious little time in which to determine precisely whose cargo they are jettisoning. Thus, to avoid quarrelling that could waste valuable time, there arose the equitable practice whereby all the merchants whose cargo landed safely would be called on to contribute a portion, based upon a share or percentage, to the merchant or merchants whose goods had been tossed overboard to avert imminent peril. While general average traces its origins in ancient maritime law, still it remains part of the admiralty law of most countries.

The first codification of general average was the York Antwerp Rules of 1890. American companies accepted it in 1949. General average requires three elements which are clearly stated by Mr. Justice Grier in Barnard v. Adams:

"1st. A common danger: a danger in which vessel, cargo and crew all participate; a danger imminent and apparently 'inevitable,' except by voluntarily incurring the loss of a portion of the whole to save the remainder."

"2nd. There must be a voluntary jettison, jactus, or casting away, of some portion of the joint concern for the purpose of avoiding this imminent peril, periculi imminentis evitandi causa, or, in other words, a transfer of the peril from the whole to a particular portion of the whole."

"3rd. This attempt to avoid the imminent common peril must be successful".

See also

• Rose, Francis D. (2005). General Average : Law & Practice 2nd Edition

External links

• York Antwerp Rules
• General average
• General average
• MSC Sabrina grounds in St. Lawrence River, Canada
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Average". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.