Quentin Tannock
Quentin Tannock has a commercial practice with a strong focus on advocacy. Quentin acts and advises on a broad spectrum of disputes across a range of industry sectors, for example, including insurance, financial services and professional negligence. While his practice has a focus on high value disputes, Quentin's clients range in size from the Fortune 100 through to SMEs. Quentin's background is in law and business, including commercial arbitration, venture capital investments and the provision of IP related strategy and policy advice to multinational corporations and international organisations. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge and gave a series of lectures on IP and business to science master’s students at the University of Cambridge.
Practice Area
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 1995
Membership
- COMBAR
- TECBAR
Education
- LLB (Hons)
- LLM (Cantab)
9 Contributions by Quentin Tannock
PRACTICE NOTES
Bills of lading and sea waybills: delivery requirements, negotiability, CGSA 1992 rights, and letters of indemnity under UK law
This Practice Note outlines the purpose and functions of sea carriage documents in relation to the delivery of cargo, with particular attention to bills of lading and sea waybills. It explains that a bill of lading may be issued as a charterers’ bill or an owner’s bill, and that such documents operate both as evidence of the contract of carriage and as security for finance.
Sea carriage documents
A sea carriage document is produced to obtain release of goods, either at the port of discharge or at the nominated place of delivery, depending on the form issued by the carrier to the shipper. That document will be either:
a bill of lading
a sea waybill
For more detail on bills of lading and sea waybills, see the Practice Note: Bills of lading and sea waybills.
Bill of lading
A bill of lading may be:
bearer bill of lading:
goods covered by this form are deliverable only to the person who holds and presents an original
order/negotiable/transferable bill of lading:
this form is made out ‘to order’. The carrier undertakes to deliver the cargo
...
Commercial
PRACTICE NOTES
Charterparties for carriage of goods by sea: time, voyage, bareboat and slot charters; key clauses (laytime, demurrage, off-hire, safe ports), bills of lading incorporation, remedies and current trends
This Practice Note
This Practice Note outlines the legal principles applicable to charterparties in arrangements for the seaborne carriage of goods. It summarises the core characteristics of voyage, time, bareboat and slot charters, together with the remedies in damages for breach associated with each category. Concluding remarks provide pointers on current legal developments affecting charterparties. Every day, a substantial quantity of cargo travels by sea, bringing into play, on a daily basis, the terms and obligations found in numerous charterparties. That commercial activity, coupled with the inherent hazards of maritime transport, fosters the emergence of disputes in this fast-moving field of law. A charterparty (or 'charter') is a contractual instrument that records the conditions upon which a shipowner permits others to employ the vessel, whether needed for a defined period or for a particular voyage agreed between the parties and set out in the charterparty...
Commercial
PRACTICE NOTES
Common and Private Carriers of Goods: Liabilities, Bailment, Standard Terms (Incorporation and Enforceability under UCTA/CRA), and Standard of Care
This Practice Note introduces two categories of cargo carrier—common carriers and private carriers—and sets out the key features of their respective liabilities within contractual relationships. It deals solely with the carriage of goods and does not extend to passenger transport.
Definition of carrier
A ‘carrier’ is, in simple terms, a person who transports cargo (and, in other contexts, passengers—though passenger carriage falls outside this Practice Note) for the benefit of others, whether free of charge or for payment (a ‘reward’).
The types of carrier are:
common carriers
private carriers
other carriers with special rights and duties
For the avoidance of doubt, the following are not carriers:
stevedores
forwarding agents who only arrange or procure carriage by others
Although not carriers for the purposes of this Practice Note, logistics companies often contract with clients on terms that address the storage and movement of goods. The United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) Contract Conditions for Logistics is an example of standard terms frequently used by logistics service providers in the UK.
Common carriers
The liabilities attaching to common carriers are...
Commercial
PRACTICE NOTES
Documents of title and carriage in international trade: bills of lading (including straight bills), air waybills, and road/rail consignment notes (Hague-Visby, Warsaw/Montreal, CMR and CIM)
This Practice Note sets out categories of documents that serve both as a document of title and as an instrument under which goods are carried across borders. Instruments under which goods are carried, and those evidencing title to goods, are vital to the efficient operation of international trade. By far the pre-eminent example in international trade is the bill of lading; see Practice Note: Bills of lading and sea waybills.
Documents of title
In international carriage and/or sales of goods, documents of title commonly enable the holder or bearer to:
clearly demonstrate ownership
take delivery of goods from a carrier
Describing a document as a ‘document of title’ applies the Hague-Visby Rules to the contract of carriage, under provisions of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971...
Commercial
PRACTICE NOTES
Hague-Visby Rules under the UK Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971: bills of lading, scope, carrier duties, defences, limitation and time bars
Hague-Visby Rules (the Rules)
This Practice Note outlines the Hague-Visby Rules, international rules governing the carriage of goods by sea, enacted into English law by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971 (CGSA 1971). It summarises the scope of the Rules, the carrier’s obligations, limits of liability and available immunities under the Rules, and the applicable time bars.
The Rules are contained in three international instruments:
the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of Lading (1924) (Hague Rules)
the Protocol to Amend the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of Lading (1968) (The First Visby Protocol)
the Protocol Amending the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of Lading (1979) (The Second Visby Protocol)
References to the Rules mean the Hague Rules as modified by the Visby protocols. The UK has ratified both Visby protocols and given the Rules domestic effect through the CGSA 1971. The Hague Rules may still apply in certain situations and will be mentioned briefly in this Practice Note for comparison...
Commercial
PRACTICE NOTES
International Carriage of Goods by Air in the UK: Common Law and Warsaw/Montreal Conventions—Liability, Documentation, Limits, Time Bars, Jurisdiction and Exclusivity
This Practice Note
This Practice Note offers an overview of the common law and the conventions that regulate international carriage by air. It sets out the carrier’s liability and the assessment of damages at common law and under the relevant conventions. The Warsaw Convention and the Montreal Convention (together with their various iterations) are outlined, alongside guidance on determining which convention governs a particular matter, and a discussion of limits of liability, jurisdiction, and limitation periods under those regimes.
The Note also introduces cargo documentation requirements and the allocation of responsibility for loss, damage, or delay affecting cargo. Carriers transporting goods by air may face liability under:
common law
international conventions
EU regulations
This Practice Note serves as an entry point to a broad and intricate subject examined comprehensively in Shawcross & Beaumont: Air Law. Its emphasis is on the common law and, to an even greater extent, on the convention framework governing international carriage by air...
Commercial
PRACTICE NOTES
International rail carriage of goods under CIM (COTIF): scope, consignment notes, loading/unloading, liability and compensation, limitation periods, jurisdiction, bailment, and UK implementation including Brexit impacts
Uniform rules concerning the contract for international carriage of goods by rail (CIM): Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents [43]
This Practice Note summarises the legal position on the carriage of goods by rail as set out in the Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM). It covers:
the scope of application of CIM;
the contract of carriage governed by CIM;
the apportionment of liability under CIM;
time bars;
jurisdiction.
It explains each of these elements within the framework of CIM. It also sets out time bars and jurisdiction under CIM, and the basis on which liability is shared. International rail carriage is regulated by the Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM) (the Rules). The Rules are made under the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), which has effect as law in the United Kingdom through the Railways (Convention on International Carriage by Rail) Regulations 2005, SI 2005/2092...
Commercial
PRACTICE NOTES
UK law on bills of lading and sea waybills: types, functions, parties, transfer of rights, charterparty incorporation, security, letters of indemnity, multimodal and electronic trade documents
This Practice Note sets out the legal framework and practical issues around bills of lading and sea waybills used in the context of arrangements for transporting goods by sea. It outlines how bearer bills, order bills and seaway bills differ, in practice, and describes the roles of a bill of lading as receipt, title document and contractual instrument. The Note also identifies the parties to the carriage contract, how they interact with third parties, and, in particular, the means by which rights under the paperwork can be effectively transferred.
A bill of lading:
is issued by or on behalf of the sea carrier to the person with whom the carriage contract is concluded
records or evidences that contract and its terms
serves as evidence of receipt of the cargo
operates as a document of title
Types of bills
Bearer bills and order bills
There are two principal kinds of bill of lading: as follows
bearer bills require delivery of the goods to the bearer (holder) of the bill of lading
for order bills, the goods must be delivered to the person named on them or to their order...
Commercial
PRACTICE NOTES
UK Road Carriage of Goods and the CMR Convention: Liability, Standard Terms, Damages, Limitation, Time Bars and Jurisdiction
This Practice Note
This Practice Note reviews the frameworks governing road haulage of goods within the UK, as well as international movements subject to the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (the CMR Convention). It sets out carrier liability and the assessment of damages at common law, and how these interact with commonly adopted hauliers’ standard conditions. It also outlines the CMR regime, touches on multimodal carriage, and addresses limitation of liability, jurisdiction and time limits under the CMR. Further sections introduce the consignment note, liability for loss or delay in transit, and the carrier’s available defences.
This Practice Note will consider the regimes covering:
carriage of goods by road within the jurisdiction
international carriage of goods under the CMR Convention
For domestic carriage, it surveys methods of incorporating standard terms and how carriers exclude or limit liability. However, emphasis falls on international carriage under the CMR Convention, given its comparative complexity...
Commercial
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