Cite as: 515 U. S. 528 (1995)
Stevens, J., dissenting
Finally, I am simply baffled by the Court's implicit suggestion that our interpretation of the Harter Act (which preceded the Hague Rules), and the federal courts' consistent interpretation of COGSA since Indussa was decided in 1967, has somehow been unfaithful to our international commitments. See ante, at 536-539. The concerns about invalidating freely negotiated forum selection clauses that this Court expressed in The Bremen v. Zapata Off-Shore Co., 407 U. S. 1 (1972), have no bearing on the validity of the provisions in bills of lading that are commonly recognized as contracts of adhesion. Our international obligations do not require us to enforce a contractual term that was not freely negotiated by the parties. Much less do they require us to ignore the clear meaning of COGSA—itself the product of international negotiations—which forbids enforcement of clauses lessening the carrier's liability. Indeed, discussing The Bremen's impact on COGSA, Professor Black observed:
"[I]t is hard to see how it can be looked on as other than a 'lessening' of the carrier's liability under COGSA to remit the bill of lading holder to a distant foreign court. It is quite true that the difficulty imposed would vary with circumstances; Canada is not Pakistan. But there is always some palpable 'lessening,' for if the choice-of-forum clause is ever enforced, the result must be to dismiss the litigant out of the United States court he has chosen to sue in. On most moderate-sized claims, remission to the foreign forum is a practical immunization of the carrier from liability." 6 Vand. J. Transnat'l L., at 368-369.
The majority points to several foreign statutes, passed by other signatories to the Hague Rules, that make foreign forum selection clauses unenforceable in the courts of those
are usually greater when litigants are forced to cross that boundary. I think Carnival Cruise was wrongly decided, but adherence to the holding in that case does not require the result the majority reaches today.
553
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