I General Principles

6.1 Adjustment of general average is founded on “the principle that the loss to the individual whose goods are sacrificed for the benefit of the rest is to be compensated according to the loss sustained on the one hand and the benefit derived on the other”.1 This principle must be applied to real, not hypothetical, circumstances. A comparison must be made between what would have happened if there had been no general average act and what has in fact happened. For example, if goods would in any event have arrived damaged, they are not to be valued as if they would have arrived undamaged.2 “The owner of goods jettisoned is to be indemnified against loss; but he is not to be a gainer by the sacrifice of his goods for the general benefit. He is not to be put in a better position than those whose goods have not been jettisoned.”3 “The rules as to contribution and adjustment … depend upon the probable state of things at, and to have reference to, the time and place [at which the voyage ends].”4