ABSTRACT
In the frenetic period between 2003 and the global crash in Autumn 2008, the market witnessed numerous instances of supposedly reputable shipbuilders demanding additional payments under shipbuilding contracts for vessels which had substantially increased in market value. There are countless instances in English law in which Parliament or the courts have created contractual remedies needed to ensure fairness or business efficiency in circumstances in which such remedies could, if they had so chosen, have been agreed by contracting parties themselves. An alternative judicial solution to the problem would be to re-categorise shipbuilding contracts in English law a process which may already be underway. Analysis suggests that the legal remedies available to both shipowners and shipbuilders to enforce the performance of international shipbuilding contracts require Parliamentary or judicial attention and reform. A significant number of the shipbuilding contracts concluded each year for export vessels are subject to English law and provide for the resolution of disputes in London, usually by arbitration.
