Cite as: 515 U. S. 528 (1995)
Stevens, J., dissenting
Knott v. Botany Mills, 179 U. S. 69 (1900), we were presented with the question whether that prohibition applied to a bill of lading containing a choice-of-law clause designating British law as controlling. The Court held:
"Th[e] express provision of the act of Congress overrides and nullifies the stipulations of the bill of lading that the carrier shall be exempt from liability for such negligence, and that the contract shall be governed by the law of the ship's flag." Id., at 77.
The Court's holding that the choice-of-law clause was invalid rested entirely on the Harter Act's prohibition against relieving the carrier from liability. Id., at 72. Since Knott, courts have consistently understood the Harter Act to create a flat ban on foreign choice-of-law clauses in bills of lading. See, e. g., Conklin & Garrett, Ltd. v. M/V Finnrose, 826 F. 2d 1441, 1442-1444 (CA5 1987); Union Ins. Soc. of Canton, Ltd. v. S. S. Elikon, 642 F. 2d 721, 723-725 (CA4 1981); Indussa Corp. v. S. S. Ranborg, 377 F. 2d 200 (CA2 1967). Courts have also consistently found such clauses invalid under COGSA, which embodies an even broader prohibition against clauses "relieving" or "lessening" a carrier's liability. Indeed, when a panel of the Second Circuit in 1955 interpreted COGSA to permit a foreign choice-of-law clause, Muller v. Swedish American Line Ltd., 224 F. 2d 806, scholars noted that "the case seems impossible to reconcile with the holding in Knott." 5 Eventually agreeing, the en banc court unanimously overruled Muller in 1967. Indussa Corp., 377 F. 2d, at 200.
In the 1957 edition of their treatise on the Law of Admiralty, Gilmore and Black had criticized not only the choice-ping receipts shall be null and void and of no effect." 27 Stat. 445, 46 U. S. C. App. § 190.
This section was rendered obsolete by § 3(8) of COGSA, a broader prohibition that invalidates clauses either "relieving" or "lessening" a carrier's liability. 46 U. S. C. App. § 1303(8), quoted supra, at 543.
5 G. Gilmore & C. Black, Law of Admiralty 125, n. 23 (1st ed. 1957).
545
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