The Institute of London Underwriters has issued new revisions of the Institute hulls and freight clauses, dated 1 November 1995. This comment considers the Institute Time Clauses Hulls, which acted as a blueprint for the other clauses. Three principal modifications will be considered: the scope of the cover, the heightened emphasis upon classification, and the introduction of a time limit for notification of a claim.

The perils covered by the Institute Time Clauses Hulls are divided into a group of strict liability perils (c1. 6.1) and a second group of perils within the Inchmaree clause which are subject to a due diligence proviso (cl. 6.2). The new revision has seen some movement between the two groups and a modification to the due diligence proviso. The reference in the old cl. 6.1.7 to “contact with aircraft or similar objects, or objects falling therefrom” has been abstracted and, with the insertion of an express reference to helicopters, now forms the new cl. 6.2.5. Moving the other way is the old cl. 6.2.1 (“accidents in loading discharging or shifting cargo or fuel”), which constitutes the new cl. 6.1.8. Cover has been reduced by the deletion of the old cl. 6.1.6 (“breakdown of or accident to nuclear installations or reactors”), which should be considered in conjunction with the inclusion within the new revision of a radioactive contamination exclusion clause (cl. 27). This clause, which replaces the old nuclear exclusion clause, which was confined to loss or damage arising from nuclear weapons of war, replicates the independent Institute Radioactive Contamination Exclusion Clause introduced by the Institute as of 1 October 1990 and excludes all “loss damage liability or expense directly or indirectly caused by or contributed to by or arising from” not only nuclear weapons of war but also any form of radioactivity from any nuclear fuel, waste or installation.