ANALYSIS OF INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF LEGAL REGIME OF PACKAGE LIMITATION IN CARRIAGE OF GOODS BY SEA

The move by the international maritime community in enacting legal regimes regulating package limitation liability in carriage of goods by sea in international law was greatly influenced by Carrier’s continuous exploitation against cargo owners especially in the 19th century, which was characterised by the concept of freedom of contract. The Carriers enjoyed a strong bargaining power in negotiating carriage contract terms, which resulted to them introducing terms excluding themselves from strict common law liabilities. The concept of freedom of contract developed to an extend that carriers attempted excluding themselves from damages resulting from their own negligence. Cargo owners were subjected to insure their own goods against maritime perils a situation they could not condole for long and consequently led to them putting up stiff resistance against carrier’s unapologetic exploitation activities. Cargo owner’s exploitation soon attracted international eyes as their weak bargaining strength pushed the international maritime community to enact legislations aimed at curtailing carrier’s excesses in a bit to strike a balance between carriers and cargo owners viz-a-viz package liability limit in international carriage of goods by sea contract. The Maritime community efforts led to the enactment of The Hague’s Rule 1924, The Hague’s -Visby Rule 1968, The Hamburg Rule 1978 and Rotterdam Rule 2008. These regulations were aimed at protecting cargo owners against earner’s exploitation by expressly spelling out carrier’s responsibility, liability and immunity in international carriage contracts. The research is aimed at analysing the different legal regimes of package limitation vis - a -vis the protection accorded to cargo owners and also geared towards achieving the following objectives to wit: analyze the limit of package liability, mode of calculating the package liability limitation, responsibility of parties in a carriage contract, liabilities and immunity of carriers and cargo owners in carriage contracts. The research methodology is largely doctrinal derived basically from primary and secondary data sources. The research didn’t just find a problem in interpreting the term “package or unit “used in determining the liability limitation formula and monetary unit but realized that the draftsmen did not envisage carriage using containers vis-a-vis liability limitation thus introducing interpretation problems which required judicial interpretations. This research work recommends the need for International uniformity in interpreting the main package limitation regimes in carriage of goods by sea in order to avoid future dispute and confusion patterning package limitations in carriage of goods by sea that has rocked the international maritime community over time.