A Study On The Carrier System Of "Rotterdam Rules"

The rapid development of electronic commerce, container transport, multimodal transport has brought new problems to the world maritime transport of goods; Not unified and lag behind of the existing law on adjusting the carriage of goods by sea has become more and more serious in the emergence of new contradictions,and powerless in the face of new challenges.It is this background that forces the related international organizations and countries to call for an new International Maritime Convention aimed to unifying the law of international carriage of goods by sea and having the ability to solve new problems in the new era.So the "Rotterdam rules" emerge-s as the times require.There have been a lot of articles about research on the "Rotterdam rules"at home and abroad.Through the analysis we can find that the existing articles mainly focus on the legislative background, legislative process, conventions of system innovation of the "Rotterdam rules" rather than to conduct the provisions of the Convention with in-depth and detailed analysis. In addition, very little research results at home and abroad with regarding to what impact, how much influence the Convention may make on the related industries, such as insurance industry, import and export trade, logistics industry, banks and other practice departments,and still on domestic law.This paper is to fill this two big research gap.Through comparative study of traditional maritime conventions and the "Rotterdam rules", I find that the attitudes of "Rotterdam rules" that traditional conventions on maritime core system-carrier system, are completely different. For example, the institutional arrangements are different, which reflects a substantial difference between the "Rotterdam rules" and the traditional convention:The traditional conventions do not distinguish the responsibility and obligation of carrier, and the "Rotterdam rules" clearly distinguish the two.From this aspect, from a new angle, I analyzes the core system of the "Rotterdam rules" -- the carrier system, and believe that the carrier system is composed of the liability system of carrier, the carrier system of duty and special system of the carrier,.The carrier’s liability system includes the five contents, namely,the basis of liability, the term of liability,the limitation of liability, exemption and responsibility of delay in delivery. The main content of the obligations of carrier system is composed of the carrier of seaworthiness obligation,obligation of taking care of the goods,obligation of issuing documents, and obligation to deliver the goods.The special system, refers to those systems put by the "Rotterdam rules" for the first time into the international maritime convention, but also some of the controversial system, including the traditional concept that not legal, including the maritime performing party, volume contract, right of goods control and delivery without original bill of lading.Methods through combining the theory and practice are used in this paper, to analyze the impact may be brought by "Rotterdam rules" on the relevant industry and legal system of our country.Finally, propose the idea, our country is not suitable for accession to the Convention, instead,we should step up research on the provisions themselves of the convention and on the evaluation of the effect of the Convention would make on the related industry in China, and thinks that we should learn some advanced systems of the convention, and incorporate them into the domestic law of our country.The article is divided into six chaptersThe first chapter talks about the development of traditional conventions to "Rotterdam rules".It is analyzed and compared from the legislative background, the content as well as the Convention defects of the three traditional conventions, so as to get the reason why "Rotterdam rules" was promulgated; and the legislative process and the future development of "Rotterdam rules" are analyzed. So the "Rotterdam rules" promulgated;And the legislative process of "Rotterdam rules" and the future development are analyzed. It took 14 years for the process of Legislation, three times for reading the draft.and finally in 2008,the draft was passed in final text. The new convention brings more problems, future development should not be too optimistic.The seond chapter is on the obligations of carrier system of "Rotterdam rules". Analyzing the seaworthiness obligation,the carrier’s obligation of taking care of the goods,obligation of issuing documents and delivery obligations. Analyzed the reasons and influences made by the Convention, since the seaworthiness obligation has been longed to the whole process of transport; increased two links’obligation before loading and after unloading,namely, "receive" and "delivery"; issued documents not only includes the paper documents,still includes electronic transport records; and detailed provisions on delivery of the goods.The third chapter refers to the carrier’s liability system of "the Rotterdam rules".Analyzing the basis of liability, period of the carrier liability,limitation of liability,exemption and delay in delivery.The basis of responsibility in " Rotterdam rules" is developed on the basis of "responsibility" in Hamburg rules. Period of responsibility for the " door to door" is a new rule. Limitation of liability is made up with the double track system,and the limitation is greatly improved. Exemptions vary greatly,and nautical fault exemption is abolished. Fire exemption is qualified "in the ship". Deep analysis on the changes of the origins,contents,effects is made in this chapter.The fourth chapter argues on four special systems put up in "the Rotterdam rules",namely,the carrying subjects’system,volume contract system,the right of control system and delivery of goods without B/L system. Special carrier subject system mainly is the creation of identification of the carrier and the maritime performing party system.Volume contract content’s deviation from the Convention is made from the united states’domestic law. The creation of the right of control system makes the midway stoppage in trade law realize.Delivery without original bill of lading system under certain legal condition causes doubt sound more than praise;simultaneously,it is difficult to achieve the original intention of legislation.The fifth chapter analyzes mainly shipping big countries’attitudes to the "Rotterdam rules". Namely,analysis of the USA, major EU countries (Britain, Germany and France) and attitude towards "Rotterdam rules" of japan. American is an active participant during the Rotterdam rules’formulation, and the basic interests have been written in the Convention, therefore, American is expected in the near future to ratify the Convention.Major EU countries’attitudes to the Convention’s are not very positive, since many of the contents of the Convention are not in conformity with their national interests. The practice party in Japan is not optimistic about the Convention,and the Japanese government sends support to the practice party, therefore the attitude of Japan on the Convention is not positive.The sixth chapter talks about the influence would be made by the Rotterdam rules on the relevant laws and industry in China. Analyzing the influence on the law system and industry of our country from the Convention,and suggesting adopting some good regulations of the Convention,meanwhile abandoning the bad ones:to put the advanced,in line with China’s national interests of the system into China’s domestic law,to abandon the provisions not suited to China’s national conditions.At the same time, we should take into account this situation:China maybe passively accepted the convention. Put up with a proposal to perfect our law on one hand,to strengthen the assessment study of the convention.