Construction (Contract)

Construction, in the contract sense, is the interpretation of a contract to find the parties’ intended meaning from the words used in their documentary, factual, and commercial context. English law applies an objective approach: the court reads the charter or bill as a reasonable person with the background knowledge available to the parties would, per Investors Compensation Scheme v West Bromwich (1998) and Wood v Capita (2017). Standard shipping forms generate a body of construction precedent on clauses like the off-hire, the safe-port warranty, and the laytime exceptions. Where words are clear the court gives effect to them even if the result is commercially hard; ambiguity is resolved against the drafter under contra proferentem.