ABSTRACT
358At common law, in general, a third party cannot claim the benefit of, and is not bound by, a term of a contract made between others. The last chapter dealt with the special statutory scheme created by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992 for the holders of bills of lading and sea waybills, equivalent electronic transactions and ship’s delivery orders. The cases in this chapter deal with the common law devices by which rights and liabilities may be transmitted to third parties, but the chapter opens with the general legislation – the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 – that enables third parties to enforce contractual terms. The 1999 Act tries to avoid interfering with the operation of the earlier statute by providing that it shall confer no rights on third parties in the case of any of the shipping contracts covered by the 1992 scheme, apart from the right, where the general requirements of the 1999 Act are satisfied, to rely on an exclusion or limitation of liability clause.
