Emergency Contact Knock-for-knock clauses and towage agreements: A Greek law perspective Home Latest updates News Knock-for-knock clauses and towage agreements: A Greek law perspective 23 Mar 2023 Download Sign up for alerts Introduction The Club’s Members come from, and trade across, all four corners of the world, and often use standard contracts under which parties’ liabilities may be allocated on a knock-for-knock basis. This concept and related indemnity provisions are widely used in contracts related to towage, offshore work and salvage (e.g. Supplytime, Towcon, Towhire, Wreckhire, Wreckfixed). Such indemnities are popular for the certainty they provide to the contracting parties by creating a straightforward system of allocating liabilities that are independent of each party’s own negligence. The legal effect of knock-for-knock clauses in such contracts under common law jurisdictions is well-established. However there is not extensive information available in relation to their application and effect under certain civil law legal systems, which usually follow different legal principles from the ones found in English law. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide a brief description of the function of knock-for-knock clauses and towage agreements generally under Greek law (which is a civil law jurisdiction) and discuss the effect these clauses could have when interpreted in the context of such agreements. The ‘knock-for-knock’ regime under Greek law In Greece, parties’ legal relationships are usually governed by one of the standard international contracts used often in shipping. These generally remain unamended and are often subject to English law. To our knowledge, under Greek law there is no legal precedent suggesting that such agreements will not be respected and upheld by the Greek courts, even when they are subject to English law or a foreign jurisdiction. However, if there is no standard contract used, or the contract is silent about the applica