Force Majeure & the Strait of Hormuz Crisis: What Shipping Lawyers Need Now
Since the Strait of Hormuz crisis began in late February 2026, the shipping and energy sectors have been living through a real-time stress test of force majeure law. QatarEnergy declared force majeure on LNG shipments in March after strikes on its Ras Laffan facilities, and has extended that relief repeatedly since — most recently through September, covering 24 cargoes and roughly 3 billion cubic metres of gas. Bapco Energies in Bahrain and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation followed with their own declarations. By May, industry trackers were reporting over 1,500 vessels stranded and insurance premiums climbing sharply as tankers continued to be struck in the Strait and the Gulf of Oman.
For counsel advising shipowners, charterers, or energy majors, this is no longer a hypothetical clause to be negotiated and filed away. It is an active, contested question: which disruptions genuinely excuse performance, and which are opportunistic invocations of a doctrine that was never designed for a conflict of this scale and duration? Disputes are already surfacing around delivery failure, nomination failures, and allegations that some force majeure declarations overreach beyond what the underlying disruption actually prevents.
Geopolitical Disruption in Shipping: Sanctions, War, and Force Majeure, by Richard L. Kilpatrick Jr. (Hart Publishing, 2026), was written for exactly this kind of moment. The book separates physical disruption — war, unrest, piracy — from purely economic disruption caused by sanctions and trade wars, and works through how courts and arbitrators across jurisdictions have actually applied force majeure, frustration, and impossibility doctrines when tested by events of this kind. For practitioners assessing a Hormuz-linked claim today, that cross-jurisdictional case law is the difference between an educated position and a guess.
It sits within our Law collection, alongside other current titles on shipping, sanctions, and commercial dispute resolution.
Q&A
Is a force majeure claim linked to the Strait of Hormuz crisis likely to succeed? It depends heavily on the specific clause, governing law, and the causal link between the disruption and the party's inability to perform — this book surveys how courts and arbitrators across jurisdictions have approached that question in comparable disputes.
What's the difference between physical and economic disruption in shipping law? Physical disruption covers war, unrest, and piracy directly affecting vessels or infrastructure; economic disruption covers sanctions and trade-war measures that make performance illegal or commercially impossible without physically touching the ship or cargo — the book treats them as related but analytically distinct.
Does this book cover sanctions-related impossibility claims? Yes, the second part of the book is dedicated to economic disruption, including sanctions and export controls as tools of statecraft, and how impossibility and frustration doctrines respond to them.
Who is Richard L. Kilpatrick Jr.? He is an Associate Professor of Law at the Bowen School of Law (University of Arkansas at Little Rock), a former practicing maritime lawyer in Chicago, and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Maritime Law at the National University of Singapore, with articles published in the ICLQ, JMLC, and LMCLQ.
Where can I buy Geopolitical Disruption in Shipping: Sanctions, War, and Force Majeure? You can order it directly from CLNZ Books (ISBN 9781509983216), with secure worldwide shipping.