A Comparative Study Of Cancellation Of Voyage Charter Parties

Voyage charter parties are quite different from other kinds of contracts, and comprise many complicated problems. The dissertation aims to study the cancellation of voyage charter parties. The dissertation mainly compares the laws and regulations of China and England. The author hopes what he studies here can be helpful to the optimization of the cancellation system of voyage charter parties in our country.The first section of the dissertation studies the lawful grounds that entitle the parties to cancel a voyage charter party respectively under Chinese law and English law. In England Carriage of Goods by Sea Acts do not apply to voyage charter parties. The parties cancel the voyage charter parties according to the regulations of contract law. In China we must apply the Contract Law of PRC, the Maritime Code of PRC and the Regulations on Domestic Carriage of Goods by Water correctly.The second section analyzes whether one party can cancel a voyage charter party when the other party fails to perform his obligations on ship or goods, or when there is an unreasonable deviation.The third section compares the date expected ready to load and cancelling date under English law with the laydays under Chinese law. The date expected ready to load is a condition. The shipowners must estimate the date honestly and start to proceed in time. The cancelling date's effect is that, although there may have been no breach by the owners nevertheless the charterers are entitled to cancel if the vessel is not delivered in a proper condition by the cancelling date. Under Chinese law the charterers are in breach when they have failed to provide the ship within the laydays. There are also some differences in exercising the right to cancel and compensating for damages according to the three.The fourth section analyzes cancellation of voyage charter parties due to frustration...