The 30th Conference of the Comité Maritime International at Hamburg in April, 1974 saw the fruition of five years’ work on the revision of the York-Antwerp Rules 1950 in the adoption of a new text on the York-Antwerp Rules together with the adoption of a resolution on the implementation of the new Rules (the text of the resolution and of the new Rules is set out below). Attempts were made to clarify the wording of the old Rules (see Rules Xc, Xlb and XVIII). Also some minor textual amendments were made (see Rules VII and XIV). It has not been thought necessary to comment on these changes since no change of substance was intended. Comments on changes of substance are set out below:

It was accepted that there was a possible lacuna in English law because of the way in which the judgment in Goulandris Bros. v. B. Goldman & Sons Ltd. [1958] 1.Q.B.74; [1957] 2 Lloyd’s Rep. 207 was framed. For this reason the words “or defences” have been added to the Rule.

The 1950 Rules excluded compensation for damage to cargo or ship which had been on fire. Difficulty was caused in practice in determining whether cargo had been on fire and the position has now been simplified by deleting this exclusion. This exclusion has now been replaced by another dealing with smoke and heat damage: under the 1950 Rules some difficulty had been encountered in determining whether the damage had been caused by smoke or by extinguishing measures. The Rule has therefore been simplified to avoid this difficulty so that no compensation is made for damage by smoke or heat however caused.

While it was claimed that the 1950 version of this Rule was obsolete nonetheless it was conceded that it contained a principle that was nowhere else expressed in the Rules. For this reason the text has been retained in a modernised form.