On Legal Effect Of Letter Of Indemnity For Bill Of Lading

Letter of indemnity has been the focus of people's attention and consideration in the field of sea transportation theory and practice since its appearance and application. In one respect, the appearance of letter of indemnity brings great efficiency and economic value to the international trade; in another respect, because of the uncertainty of the legal effect, letter of indemnity causes strong negative impact to the traditional international trade, and the intervention of the Letter of indemnity for B/L specially causes the decrease to the belief in the security and the independence of the B/L, and makes cheating convenient in trades. People have various views about letter of indemnity, but among the most countries, there exist a vacancy of clear and uniform legislation in statute law, which induces a long-term dispute about the legal effect of letter of indemnity among the law and academe. The uncertainty of the legal effect of letter of indemnity usually make the parties confused and trapped between two fires, which on the contrary does not make for the development of international trade and seafaring. And according to that, the writer believes that these are reasons to underlay the study of the legal effect of letter of indemnity for B/L in this paper. This paper will be divided into four chapters except the preface and conclusion. The first chapter is the summarization that introduces the definition, origin and the advantages and disadvantages of the letter of indemnity for B/L in practice, putting forward the basic points and the research meaning in referring to it; In the second chapter, it mainly introduces some basic points of view of letter of indemnity for B/L in western countries as well as in China. And at present, there is only the Hamburg Rules which has made a stipulation of the legal effect of letter of indemnity in principle, so the paper also makes some introduction of the corresponding terms and put forward some personal points of view; In the third chapter, with the aim to resolve the problems, guarantee and advance the development of the international trade, the paper firstly makes a discussion about the character of letter of indemnity for B/L according to the difference of the people who set them, and then introduces the extension of the legal effect of letter of indemnity briefly, dividing it into two kinds(letter of indemnity for Clean B/L, letter of indemnity for Advanced or Anti-dated B/L)so as to make a detailed demonstration for the legal effect of them, which will induce different obligations for the parties; The fourth chapter is divided into two parts. The first part suggests that national Maritime Law revision should supplement and perfect on homologized legislation in order to justly resolve each related part's benefit and to reduce unnecessary dissension. And in the second part, the paper puts forward some suggestions for the shippers and the carriers respectively with the aim to promote the development of international trade and sea transportation. It suggests that as for letter of indemnity, the carriers should pay more attention to its content and expression, and as well as the check of the competency of the party who set it.