Knock-For-Knock Indemnities and the Law: Contractual Limitation and Delictual Liability

This book examines contractual limitation, principles and practice through the use of knock-for-knock indemnity clauses. In using such clauses, the parties agree that for certain forms of potential liability - typically property damage, personal injury to employees, and sometimes other heads of claim such as consequential loss - any loss arising will be absorbed by the party who suffers it: ＂you look after your losses, I’ll look after mine.＂ It is an apparently simple, pragmatic and neat solution to the question of who bears liability: a risk allocation model so straightforward that it was described by one experienced English judge, Honorable Mr. Justice Morison, as ＂crude＂.

A specialist contributor team of international experts, examine the origin, application and effect of these clauses in important jurisdictions, their impact in different industries such as oil & gas, shipping, construction and insurance, through the lenses of both economic and legal analyses.

The book is of use for lawyers, economists and businesspeople who draft, negotiates or manage contracts in all industries where liability is dealt with in this way. It is also of interest to students, academics, and policy makers.

Dr. Kristoffer Svendsen is Associate Professor at the University of Stavanger and Kristiania University College. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Tulane Center for Energy Law and an Associate Member of Aberdeen University Centre for Energy Law. Kristoffer is specialized in the interaction of petroleum law, environmental law and tort law. His research interests are conventional energy law, renewable energy law, torts and contracts. Kristoffer has been working in Brussels, Moscow, and the USA, and is admitted as an Attorney-at-law in New York and a solicitor in New South Wales.

Dr. Endre Stavang is Professor of Law at the University of Oslo and was a Visiting Scholar in Residence at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law (2012-2013). He initiated the Research Group on Natural Resource Law at the University of Oslo and leads its property team. Endre’s scholarship focuses on property theory, liability regimes, environmental law, and law and economics. Stavang was a Fulbright research scholar for one year at Yale Law School and has hands on experience as an appellate court judge and an in-house oil, gas, and energy lawyer in Norway.

Dr. Greg Gordon is Professor of Law and Head of School of Law at University of Aberdeen. He previously served as Deputy Head of School and as the Co-Director for Aberdeen University Centre for Energy Law. Before joining the University of Aberdeen, Greg worked in Aberdeen and London as a solicitor specialising in litigation, primarily in the oil and gas sector. His principal teaching and research interests are in energy law (particularly upstream oil and gas law), delict/tort and commercial contracting. Greg is an editorial board member of the Stair Memorial Encyclopedia, a local committee member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.