Seminar: Exclusion of Liability for Consequential Loss-Comparative Perspective

The Centre for Maritime Law continued its successful seminar series with another informative and thought provoking presentation. The seminar was conducted by Mr Greg Gordon, Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Aberdeen and Deputy Director of the Aberdeen University Centre for Energy Law.

Mr Gordon examined, in practical terms, what a contractual clause that excludes liability for consequential loss achieves. He highlighted the legal issues with the narrow definition found in the ‘second limb’ in Hadley v Baxendale (1854) 9 Ex. 341 and touched upon leading academic commentary on the subject. The speaker provided a comparative analysis of case law in England, Scotland and Australia where the definition of consequential loss has been addressed. The analysis indicated that courts in Scotland and Australia appear to have rejected the second limb test in Hadley v Baxendale and English courts have inferred they may also take a similar approach. The speaker concluded that the law in this area is in transition and provided some thoughts on how it is likely to develop.

A lively Q&A session followed the presentation where participants made valuable contributions to the discussion.

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