492. Construction of Hague-Visby Rules.

The application of the Hague-Visby Rules1 is largely a matter of construction. The effect of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971 is to write certain standardised conditions of liability, that is the Hague-Visby Rules, into the contract of carriage2. In construing the Hague-Visby Rules, the court will apply the usual rules of construction3. If words occurring in the Hague-Visby Rules have had meanings assigned to them by judicial construction when used in contracts for the carriage of goods by sea before those Rules had the force of law, the proper approach to the construction of those words