ABSTRACT
The idea for a Rule to cover tug and tow situations was developed more or less simultaneously by working parties within the AIDE and the British Maritime Law Association with the object of promoting uniformity of practice in an area where the jurisprudence of different countries had developed in different directions. The promoters of the new rule were concerned at the variety and inconsistency of the legal regimes applying in different countries to the transport of goods by barge, and in the various commercial instruments regulating the towage or other propulsion of those barges. In the United States and Canada there has been a substantial increase in the carriage of goods by barge, not merely on the Great Lakes and river systems, but also seagoing on the west coast. The case law, unfortunately, is inconsistent, each case appearing to have been settled on its own particular facts.
