(The law of) General average is a legal principal of maritime law according to which all parties in a sea venture proportionally share any losses resulting from a voluntary sacrifice of part of the ship or fleet to save the whole in an emergency.

The first codification of general average was the York Antwerp Rules of 1890. American accepted it in 1949.

General average traces its origins in ancient maritime law and is still part of the admiralty law of most countries. General average requires three elements which are clearly stated by Mr. Justice Grier in Barnard v. Adams:

"Ist. A common danger: a danger in which vessel, cargo and crew all participate; a danger imminent and apparently 'inevitable,' except by voluntarily incurring the loss of a portion of the whole to save the remainder."

"2nd. There must be a voluntary jettison, jactus, or casting away, of some portion of the joint concern for the purpose of avoiding this imminent peril, periculi imminentis evitandi causa, or, in other words, a transfer of the peril from the whole to a particular portion of the whole."

"3rd. This attempt to avoid the imminent common peril must be successful".

See also:

• Rose, Francis D. (2005). General Average : Law & Practice 2nd Edition

External links

• General average
• General average

Law of the sea