ABSTRACT

It is evident from databases tracking terrorist incidents that insured vessels have been the subject of terrorist attacks on multiple occasions during the past 50 years. The Rand Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents recorded 136 maritime targets since records began in 1968. In obiter comments in IF P & C Insurance Limited v. Silversea Cruises Limited, The Silver Cloud, Rix and Ward L. J. J. considered whether the 9/11 attacks could fall within those perils. Both accepted that the question was not to be determined by technical definitions of public international law but by the “common sense” understanding of commercial operators. The standard Hull & Machinery policies, both marine and war risks, simply name terrorism as an excluded and included peril, without further definition. Where marine policies provide only for a terrorism exclusion without further definition, one likely source of interpretative assistance is likely to be statutory definitions.