ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the impact of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 on a number of well-known problems relating to international carriage of goods. It deals the effect of the 1999 Act on exemption clauses in bills of lading. Section 1(6) of the 1999 Act provides that, “where a term of a contract excludes or limits liability in relation to any matter, references in this Act to the third party enforcing the term shall be construed as references to his availing himself of the exclusion or limitation”. The efficacy of Himalaya clauses as devices for conferring the benefit of bill of lading exemption and limitation clauses on third parties is now generally recognized, and discusses subject to qualifications (and possible qualifications). The bill of lading becomes in the transferee’s hands a mere receipt and the contractual relations between him and the shipowner are governed by the charterparty.
