Sources and methodology
SDR exchange rates
Limits expressed in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) are converted with the IMF's published "currency units per SDR" rates (IMF, last five days). Current build: 1 SDR = US$1.35646 (2026-10-16), C$1.92214 (2026-10-15), €1.20542 (2026-10-16). Status: live. The figures above are the build-time snapshot. On the live site a scheduled job fetches the IMF table once a day and the calculator reads the latest stored rates from /data/sdr.json. If the IMF cannot be reached, the last stored rates are kept and labelled as such.
Courts convert at the date the governing law sets (often the date of judgment or payment), which may differ from today's rate.
Treaty texts, statutes and status lists
- UK Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971
- UNIDROIT, CMR 1956 text
- Montreal Convention 1999, Arts. 18, 22 (EUR-Lex text)
- 49 U.S.C. § 14706
- Institute Cargo Clauses (A) 1/1/09 (Lloyd's Market Association text)
- CMI, York-Antwerp Rules 2016 (Rule of Interpretation, Rule Paramount, Rules A-E, XXII)
- CMI Guidelines relating to General Average (2nd ed., 2022)
- Institute Cargo Clauses (B) and (C) 1/1/09
- 46 U.S.C. § 30701 note (COGSA)
- OTIF, COTIF Appendix B (CIM) text
- UNCITRAL, Hamburg Rules (text)
- Nigerian National Shipping Line Ltd v Owners of Cargo Lately Laden on Board "River Gurara" [1997] EWCA Civ 2105 (BAILII)
- CMI case database: The River Gurara
- AP Moller-Maersk A/S v Kyokuyo Ltd (The Maersk Tangier) [2018] EWCA Civ 778 (BAILII)
- CMI case database: Maersk Line v Kyokuyo
- ICAO, Current list of parties to the Montreal Convention 1999
- ICAO news, 18 Oct 2024: limits to increase on 28 December 2024
- ICAO, 2019 revised limits of liability under the Montreal Convention
- Canadian Transportation Agency: upward revision of limits effective 28 December 2019
- Protocol to the CMR, 1978 (SDR amendment), University of Oslo treaty text
- UN Treaty Collection, CMR (XI-B-11)
- 49 C.F.R. Part 370 (claims)
- Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Elmore & Stahl, 377 U.S. 134 (1964) (Justia)
- IMF factsheet: Special Drawing Rights (SDR)
- IMF press release 22/153: Board concludes SDR valuation review (May 2022)
- IMF press release 22/281: new currency amounts for the SDR basket (July 2022)
- IMF: SDR valuation (daily rates)
- Canada, Marine Liability Act, s.43 and Schedule 3
- Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (depositary): States bound by the 1979 SDR Protocol
- Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (depositary): States bound by the 1968 Visby Protocol (last modified 28 May 2021)
- UN Treaty Collection, Hamburg Rules (XI-D-3)
- CMI, Status of ratifications of the Brussels maritime law conventions (CMI Yearbook 2016 extract)
- Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (depositary): States bound by the 1924 Bills of Lading Convention
- UNCITRAL, Rotterdam Rules status
- UN Treaty Collection, Chapter XI-D-8
- MC99 text (UK implementing order, Arts. 31 and 35)
- ICAO, Parties to the Warsaw Convention 1929 and The Hague Protocol 1955
- UK Carriage by Air Acts (Implementation of Protocol No. 4 of Montreal, 1975) Order 1999
- UNECE, CMR text
- OTIF, Member States
What "to confirm" means
Where we could not verify a fact from a primary source during the last review (2026-10-16), the data file and the page say to confirm instead of guessing.
General information only, not legal or insurance advice. Limits depend on the contract, the documents issued, declared values, national law and the facts of each case. Check the primary sources and consult a qualified professional before relying on any figure.