Channels, crossing, and good seamanship: The Ever Smart and COLREGs

The enormity of The Ever Smart1 decision is made plain in the opening paragraph of the Supreme Court judgment which observes that it is, in fact, the first appeal on a collision case to come before the Supreme Court for the better part of 50 years. The last such appeal before the then House of Lords was The Savina2 in 1976, and the Supreme Court has here provided some welcome clarity to the law on collisions at sea.

Introduction