General average

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General average is one of the oldest principles in commerce, descending from the Rhodian sea law of antiquity: when an extraordinary sacrifice or expenditure is intentionally and reasonably made to save ship and cargo from a common peril — jettisoning cargo, engaging salvors, beaching a burning vessel — the loss is shared proportionally by all the interests saved, not borne only by whoever’s property was sacrificed.

When general average is declared, cargo owners must normally provide security (an average bond, and a guarantee from their insurers) before their goods are released, while professional average adjusters work out each party’s contribution — a process that can take years on a large casualty. The applicable rules are almost always the York-Antwerp Rules, incorporated by reference into bills of lading and charterparties.

Modern mega-casualties keep the doctrine very much alive: containership fires and groundings (the Ever Given’s Suez grounding in 2021 being a prominent example) trigger general average across thousands of cargo interests — an unpleasant surprise for shippers whose goods are uninsured.