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ARTICLE · 30 OCTOBER 2023

Canada Officially Jettisons The Hamburg Rules: Marine Liability Act Amended

Stikeman Elliott LLP
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After two decades of consistent recommendations by Transport Canada, it appears that the Canadian Parliament has finally given up hope of implementing the Hamburg Rules as a new liability regime...

CanadaTransport
Simon Ledsham
Simon Ledsham
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After two decades of consistent recommendations by Transport Canada, it appears that the Canadian Parliament has finally given up hope of implementing the Hamburg Rules as a new liability regime for the carriage of goods by water. Among the several amendments made by the omnibus Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1 (S.C. 2023, c. 26) to the Marine Liability Act (S.C. 2001, c. 6) (the "MLA"), all mention of the Hamburg Rules has been removed from the MLA, effective as of June 22, 2023.

The Hamburg Rules, officially known as The United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea, 1978, were drafted by UNCITRAL in 1976 as a proposed replacement for the Hague Rules of 1924 and the Hague-Visby Rules of 1968. While Canada has not ratified any of these instruments, it has incorporated the Hague-Visby rules into its domestic law with certain changes, through the MLA.

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