What the course covers
The course separates the two basic structures. Under a voyage charter the owner makes the ship available for a defined voyage and earns freight; the allocation of time for loading and discharge runs through laytime and demurrage. Under a time charter the charterer takes the commercial employment of the ship for a period and pays hire; the contract then turns on off-hire, employment orders and the indemnity clause.
The work is done on the standard forms. GENCON 2022 is the general purpose voyage charterparty published by BIMCO, which holds the copyright, and it replaced GENCON 1994. NYPE 2015 is the most widely used dry cargo time charterparty, developed by BIMCO with the Association of Shipbrokers and Agents, which holds the copyright in the form, and the Singapore Maritime Foundation. For tankers the course uses Asbatankvoy, published by ASBA.
The course then works through the clauses that generate most of the litigation: vessel description and speed and consumption, safe port, the cancelling date, governing law and arbitration, war and sanctions clauses, bunkers and redelivery. It closes the contractual picture with the relationship between the charterparty and the bill of lading. Where the contract of carriage is subject to the Hague-Visby Rules, those rules take effect in the United Kingdom through the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971, whose Schedule sets out the Hague Rules as amended by the Brussels Protocol 1968.
Who it is for
Owners, charterers, operators, freight forwarders with international traffic and in-house legal teams who negotiate or perform contracts drafted in English. Regular work with English-language contract documents is assumed.
Why it matters
English law treats the charterparty as a bargain between commercial parties and gives weight to the words agreed. A fixture recap with terms incorporated by reference produces enforceable obligations, and the negotiating email chain forms part of the record if a dispute follows.
The arbitration clause decides where a dispute is resolved and which procedural regime applies. Under English law the framework is the Arbitration Act 1996, as amended by the Arbitration Act 2025, in force since 1 August 2025.
Programme
- Voyage and time charters: structure, freight and hire
- Laytime, demurrage and despatch: calculation and notice of readiness
- Off-hire, employment orders and the indemnity in time charters
- GENCON 2022, NYPE 2015 and Asbatankvoy: reading the clauses
- Safe port, vessel description, cancelling date and redelivery
- Charterparty and bill of lading: Hague-Visby Rules and COGSA 1971
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