On The General Principles Regarding The Effectiveness Of The Clauses In Bill Of Lading

It is very important in the carriage of goods by sea to regard the effectiveness of the clauses in the bill of lading. Currently, many scholars focus their study not on the effectiveness of all clauses as general, but on that of individual clauses in the bill of lading. The author attempts to analyze the clauses of bill of lading as a whole and conclude some general principles for making certain whether a clause is valid or not. The author hopes that the study in this paper could provide some basic guiding principles in the judicial practice.The author concludes six principles from the universality and particularity of the bill of lading through contrasting the bill of lading with the contract of carriage of goods and analyzing some cases. First, the clause can't go against the basic principles in the civil law and the contract law, because it is a general contract clause first. As concerning this, the author analyzes three principles: principle of justice and equity, principle of public order and ex aequo et bono, consensus as a inbeing character of a contract. Then the author concludes three principles from the particularity of the bill of lading: the clause must be bound to the three rules of a form clause and it can't go against the characters of the bill of lading and the imperative rules of the applicable domestic laws and international conventions. Finally the author analyzes what to do when conflicts appear among the clauses of the bill of lading. In this paper, the author uses these principles to make particular analysis on some clauses and these principles are discussed under their respective chapters in depth with the author's point of views in various issues.