On Three Chinese Versions Of The Hamburg Rules

United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea (1978) (hereinafter referred to as the Hamburg Rules, the Convention or UNCCGS), an outcome of decades' endeavor of both developed and developing countries in the world to establish a modern and uniform international legal regime to govern the carriage of goods by sea, takes to some extent into consideration the interests of some developing countries.And Maritime Code of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Maritime Code), which entered into force as of July 1, 1993, was drafted with reference to the Hamburg Rules. Many achievements have been attained in the Chinese maritime circle since the Maritime Code became effective 11 years ago. With time passing on, however, revision and amendment in respect of the Maritime Code is, in accordance with the current situation in the field, being considered by many Chinese scholars. And such revision and amendment of "Chinese Maritime Code should be carried out in the light of the principles set forth in the Hamburg Rules "["我国的海运立法应当符合《汉堡规则》的原则"(胡正良, 《中国远洋》 2003,7) ].Therefore both accurate understanding and proper rendering of the Hamburg Rules are in urgent need. Bearing this in mind, the author of this thesis makes many efforts to read the Hamburg Rules (English version) and its three Chinese versions. (The first version is chosen from A New Compilation of Conventions and Rules on International Business, edited byWang Chuifang, and published by Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers in 1990. The second version is selected from International Civil and Commercial Conventions and Practices?2, edited by Karl Joanson, and published by China University of Political Science and Law Press in 1993. The third version is taken from Legal and Practical Book On Sino-Foreign Contracts, edited by Lei Xian, and published by China Economy Press in 1994) . He is determined to make a comparative study of these three versions on the basis of his researches on the characteristics of Legal English, commenting on the merits and pointing out the defects in the versions. Where unsatisfactory translations are found, the author is prepared to give his suggested versions for discussion.The thesis consists of four parts. Part One, titled "Legal English and its Characteristics", deals with the definition, function and the characteristics of Legal English. Part Two, titled "Legal English Translation" discusses the definition, process and the criteria of translation, and Legal English translation. Part Three, titled "United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea (1978) and its Three Chinese Versions", presents background information of the Convention and three Chinese versions to be commented on. Part Four, titled "Comments on Three Chinese Versions", deals with the three versions in detail, ranging from lexical level, syntactic level,punctuation to style, followed by a brief conclusion.