Classification societies are charged with the technical supervision of
maritime shipping to enhance the safety of life and property at sea by
securing high te- nical standards of design, manufacture, construction
and maintenance of seagoing vessels. Each and every shipping catastrophe
caused by a technical defect reminds the maritime world of the central
importance of the vessel's proper technical supervision.
Correspondingly, the liability of classification societies has become a
particularly discussed issue over the past years. Their contractual
liability is usually limited by general terms and conditions
incorporated in the classification rules and cases brought by typical
contracting partners of classification societies, such as ship owners
and ship yards, are not an issue in the current debate. H- ever, one can
note a substantial worldwide increase of actions brought by parties who
are not in privity with classification societies. This study focuses on
third-party liability of classification societies. It ori- nates in an
expert opinion on selected issues relating to third-party liability
which the authors compiled for the German classification society
Germanischer Lloyd AG. Driven by the highly interesting legal issues and
unexplored shores in this area of law, we continued our research and are
able to present a relatively c- prehensive overview on the law on
third-party liability of classification societies. Given the origins of
our work, the discussion of limitations of liability clauses is based on
the standard terms and conditions of the Germanischer Lloyd, version
2005.
