Researching On The Legal System Of The Identify Of The Carrier In International Carriage Of Goods By Sea

The identify of the carrier in carriage of goods by sea is a traditional research thesis of Maritime Law. For the problem concerns the definition of claim target in shipping, Identifying the carrier correctly is significant not only to protect the shipper's lawful rights and interests, but to defend the trade safety. Recently, with the development of international shipping trade, more and more subjects of transport-legal relationship enter into the trade, which makes the identify of the carrier more difficult. Chaos often takes place in shipping and judicial practice for there is no uniform rule that can be followed.The exact meaning and range of "carrier" is the key to identifying the carrier. In different legal system, that is distinct. Ship owner, ship manager and shipping agent, taking part in the transport trade, always affect finding the carrier.In many countries, "carrier" means any person by whom or in whose name a contract of carriage of goods by sea has been concluded with a shipper. But when there is no contract or the bill of lading holder will not know about the contract, the routine measure is that the identify of carrier is based on those written on the bill of lading. In addition, finding the carrier in charter party and identifying the actual carrier need some special rules.In china, there is no definite law about how to identify the carrier, and related legal system should be improved.