Category: Marine cargo insurance · Reviewed by the Apex broking team · Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Category: Marine cargo insurance Also known as: YAR, York Antwerp Rules, rules of general average adjustment Related concepts: general average, Marine Insurance Act 1906
The York-Antwerp Rules are the standard international rules governing how general average is adjusted: which sacrifices and expenditures are allowed in general average, how the amounts made good are valued, and how the total is apportioned over the contributing interests of ship, cargo and freight. First developed in the nineteenth century from resolutions adopted at conferences in York and Antwerp, they exist to give the international shipping community one uniform basis of adjustment in place of divergent national laws.
The Rules have no force of law of their own. They are neither a convention nor a statute; they apply to a casualty only because the contract of carriage says they do. In practice virtually every bill of lading and charterparty contains a general average clause providing for adjustment according to the York-Antwerp Rules, usually specifying a particular version. The version named in the contract is the one that governs — a point of real consequence, because the revisions differ on matters such as the treatment of certain expenses and interest on allowances.
The Rules combine a rule of interpretation and an overriding rule of paramount with two groups of substantive provisions: lettered rules setting out general principles — including the core definition that a general average act exists where an extraordinary sacrifice or expenditure is intentionally and reasonably made for the common safety — and numbered rules dealing with specific situations such as jettison, extinguishing fire, refloating a stranded ship, and expenses at a port of refuge. The numbered rules prevail in their specific fields; the lettered rules govern anything not specifically provided for.
The Rules have been revised periodically, and several versions remain in circulation because contracts continue to incorporate the version their drafters chose. Responsibility for maintaining the Rules rests with the Comité Maritime International. For any given casualty, the practical question is never which version is newest but which version the contract of carriage incorporates.
For cargo owners and their insurers, the York-Antwerp Rules are the machinery behind every general average demand: the average adjuster’s statement, the values on which contributions are assessed, and the allowances that make up the pot are all products of the Rules as incorporated. Cargo underwriters price and pay general average contributions on this basis, and disputes about an adjustment are argued within the Rules’ framework. Anyone reading a general average security demand is, directly or not, reading the York-Antwerp Rules at work.
This entry is part of the Apex Insurance Wiki. Last reviewed 2026-08-21. Next review: 2027-02-21.
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