Does Limitation of Liability have a place in the modern maritime business environment?
Lord Mustill, in his article “Ships are different – or are they?”,23 raises three issues that question the legitimacy of limitation of liability in the current economic and business environment. He contends that perhaps limitation of liability is no longer justifiable and it may be time to do away with it. His three contentions are as follows: 1. The original economic considerations that generated the development of limitation of liability in shipping no longer have any resemblance to the business environment of the modern shipping industry. What has been left is a rather general interest that shipping organisations should be encouraged to remain in the shipping business for society’s benefit. The principle as espoused in the Amalia case that “full indemnity, the natural right of justice, shall be abridged for political reasons”24 involved political reasoning that may no longer be considered sound. The politicians of the day may have had a need to placate what was an extremely powerful
