Study On The Determination Of International Freight Forwarders And Non-vessel Owning Common Carriers

Since the signature of International Maritime Regulations in January 2002, the non vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) business in China has been independent from the traditional international freight forwarding business. However, the conflicts between the existing laws and expired laws and the gap in law have brought incompetence to the monitoring and supervision to the NVOCC business. Moreover, because NVOCCs are not the independent legal persons, and cannot be identified clearly from the international freight forwarders in practice, once in dispute, the court has difficulties in determine their subjects and their liabilities. Therefore, the study on the determination of the subjects of the international freight forwarders and NVOCCs is very significant.This paper is divided in four chapters: Chapter 1 starts with the history of international freight forwarder and NVOCC and compares their legal status in theoretical view. Then the author illustrates the practical sense of the determination of international freight forwarder and NVOCC. Chapter 2 introduces the definition of ocean transportation intermediaries in maritime law of USA, which can be the example China can learn from. Chapter 3 presents the current legislations of international freight forwarder and NVOCC and the problems in practice and analyze the reason why it is difficult to determine the subject of the two. Then the author summarizes the determination standard of international freight forwarder and NVOCC. Chapter 4, as the final chapter, brings forward the legislative proposal on the determination of international freight forwarder and NVOCC.