Aug 24, 2026 · 22 min · 9 segments
When US-Israeli airstrikes killed Iran’s supreme leader in February 2026, sparking an Iranian retaliation on US allies in the Middle…
Adam RichardsonGuest
Mahika RavishankarHostAnd how have those operational and legal teams responded to the new uncertain and challenging environment? What are some, like, key contractual issues that they've had to work through?
So I think the big one that has come out, and, and the obvious one really, is force majeure.
I mean, those are the clauses which deal with these sorts of, um, extraneous events that are no fault based.
They are to deal with situations which arise that the parties have not necessarily legislated for, and the idea generally behind them is that they will excuse parties from performing where you have these extraneous events, and that is the big topic that's come up from a legal perspective over the last few months.
If a party has failed to present a vessel in time or if a party has failed to load a cargo on time, whether that gives rise to a right to terminate and to damages.
Now, in terms of how people navigate that, we've seen a wide variety of different approaches.
You know, we are often asked in abstract terms, with all of these difficulties, is it a case that contracts are excused on the basis of force majeure? And unfortunately, the answer is it depends.
I know that's a bit of a lawyerly argument, but, um, a lawyerly thing to say, but that is the truth of the matter.
It's a question of what the origin of that product is, and if there's- Some sort of optionality as to the origin, whether that's been locked in or whether that's still open.
You know, it can be very different depending if you're trading on an FOB or a CFR, CIF basis.
And quite apart from that, there is the factual question which is, to what extent have the events actually affected performance? And again, going back to the point I made earlier, that is something which is changing constantly.
You know, there have been times during this period where it has been a bit easier and times when it has been a little bit harder.
Yeah, I mean, it's a lawyer's answer and also a politician's answer, I guess.
And I guess you can't really speak to which specific responses work better than others, but in general, is there a kind of attitude towards navigating this contractual difficulty that you might recommend that you've found easier to work with than a different attitude?
And how have those operational and legal teams responded to the new uncertain and challenging environment? What are some, like, key contractual issues that they've had to work through?
So I think the big one that has come out, and, and the obvious one really, is force majeure.
I mean, those are the clauses which deal with these sorts of, um, extraneous events that are no fault based.
They are to deal with situations which arise that the parties have not necessarily legislated for, and the idea generally behind them is that they will excuse parties from performing where you have these extraneous events, and that is the big topic that's come up from a legal perspective over the last few months.
If a party has failed to present a vessel in time or if a party has failed to load a cargo on time, whether that gives rise to a right to terminate and to damages.
Now, in terms of how people navigate that, we've seen a wide variety of different approaches.
You know, we are often asked in abstract terms, with all of these difficulties, is it a case that contracts are excused on the basis of force majeure? And unfortunately, the answer is it depends.
I know that's a bit of a lawyerly argument, but, um, a lawyerly thing to say, but that is the truth of the matter.
It's a question of what the origin of that product is, and if there's- Some sort of optionality as to the origin, whether that's been locked in or whether that's still open.
You know, it can be very different depending if you're trading on an FOB or a CFR, CIF basis.
And quite apart from that, there is the factual question which is, to what extent have the events actually affected performance? And again, going back to the point I made earlier, that is something which is changing constantly.
You know, there have been times during this period where it has been a bit easier and times when it has been a little bit harder.
Yeah, I mean, it's a lawyer's answer and also a politician's answer, I guess.
And I guess you can't really speak to which specific responses work better than others, but in general, is there a kind of attitude towards navigating this contractual difficulty that you might recommend that you've found easier to work with than a different attitude?
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