Laytime and Demurrage (Lloyd's Shipping Law Library) 7th Edition

FROM THE LLOYDS SHIPPING LAW LIBRARY:A LEADING SHIPPING LAW TEXT ON LAYTIME AND DEMURRAGE -- NOW IN A NEW SEVENTH EDITIONAn appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor ofRichmond Green ChambersFrom Lloyds Shipping Law Library comes this new seventh edition of ‘Laytime and Demurrage’ recently published by Informa from Routledge. Since 1986 when the first edition was published, this text has become the definitive work in this often abstruse and complicated area of shipping law.The author John Schofield, who has also written the fifth and sixth editions of this book, discusses the often elusive meaning of the term ‘demurrage’ which seems to defy precise definition, although it is useful to know that the term comes from the Latin word for ‘delay.’If one notes the author’s quote from the judgment in Harris v Jacobs, demurrage can be described as ‘…the agreed amount of damage which is to be paid for the delay of the ship caused by a default of the charters at either the commencement or the end of the voyage.’Demurrage, then, is due as and when the ‘laytime’ has been exceeded; i.e. the time allowed for the receiving of -- or the discharging of -- the ship’s cargo -- (See Appendix A). Perhaps to oversimplify, this means basically that the shipment has been received late and the demurrage is the penalty payment which has been authoritatively described as a type of recoverable liquidated damages. Issues of breach of contract now emerge.This new edition reflects the fact that new developments and new cases have emerged since the last edition was published in 2011. ‘A number of cases have reached the courts,’ says the author, ‘and have modified, or at least clarified, the law relating to laytime and demurrage.’Here Schofield expresses concern over moves to impose regulatory control over when detention or demurrage is payable, adding that this development was opposed by the World Shipping Council on behalf of the industry generally. ‘Whether anything will come of it,’ he says, ‘we will have to wait and see.’In the meantime, this excellent text remains the definitive work in this area of shipping law, in particular the law relating to voyage charters. No pun intended -- this new edition has been made easier to navigate via an improved index which makes specific topics easier to look up, as does the detailed seven page table of contents. Extensive tables of cases and statutes are included, together with extensive footnoting and numbered paragraphs throughout and three appendices.As the book covers virtually every conceivable aspect of this subject, it is undoubtedly an essential purchase -- especially in this new edition -- for all shipping practitioners.The law is stated as at 15 November 2015.