Review Details

Charterers' Liability Insurance

Product Review (submitted on 3 August 2011):

The need for charterers’ liability insurance has grown remarkably over the past 20 years, according to the author of this useful work of reference. As far as is known, this is the first book to bring together ‘the multi-faceted aspects of charterers’ liability’ into one handy volume.

The holder of a post graduate degree in maritime economics – the author and his fellow contributors, all experts in this highly complex area, have produced a book which we are certain will emerge as required reading for all those with an interest in -- especially a financial interest in -- chartering activity -- which is now fraught with increasing financial risk.

The author, Heinz Gohlish, identifies three factors which explain why this is so. The first – due to a balance of power shift from ship owners to charterers -- is that the element of risk is being passed more frequently from owner to charterer. Secondly, there has been an increase in recent years in the values, both of commodities and the vessels that transport them.

The third factor is the increasingly stringent regulatory and legislative environment in which a charterer is likely to be called into account, say, in the event of a major casualty such as an environmental disaster. With the emphasis on ‘essential best practice’, as the subtitle indicates, the approach is reassuringly practical, and driven by an underlying awareness that the risk involved in charterers’ liability insurance is essentially legal in nature for the obvious reason that it is essentially contractual.

This is a vast subject, so you are warned! Every case is different. For example, the point is made in Section five – Charterers Insurance Practice: Charterers’ Legal Liabilities – that ‘maritime and shipping law brings together more individual legal subjects than any other area (of law)....’ Wisely, the author counsels legal advice when a particular disputed situation arises.

The book is therefore aimed at charterers, or their advisers who need to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the underlying risks and potential exposures that may affect them -- sometimes ruinously -- and the means by which such exposures can be managed.

We would certainly recommend this book to not merely to charterers, but to practitioners, investors, marine industry operators, students, academics -- or indeed anyone who seeks an enriched understanding of the technically complex area of charterers’ liability insurance.