A Studies On The Legal Issues Concerning COA

Nowadays, COA in the carriage of goods is widely used, mainly because that COA can provide sufficient carrying capacity to the shipper and ensure enough supply of goods to the carrier during the contract period. However, in the performance of COAs, disputes cannot be avoided, as there are no special provisions regulating COA in relevant legislation in China and even abroad, as a result of which a party's interests under a contract may be prejudiced. It has become necessary to stipulate provisions in Chinese law to meet the requirement of increasingly use of COA trade.This thesis starts from analysis of the definition, characters and legal nature of COA. Then, it studies the legal issues relating to COA. As the nature of COA is very similar to a consecutive single trip charterparty, reference is made to the provisions concerning such a charterparty or volume contract in English and American laws in the analysis of the relevant legal issues relating to COA. It also studies the latest provisions regarding "volume contract" in the UNCITRAL Draft Transport Law, especially those therein reflecting the freedom of contract and those mandatorily applicable to "volume contract" as well as the proposal submitted by Australia and France. On the basis of the above studies of COA, It discusses the mandatory and non-mandatory statutory provisions to be shaped and applicable to COA in Chinese law. Then, it explores the extent to which principle of freedom of contract shall be applied to COA under Chinese legal system. In the last part of the thesis, the author suggests that a section need be contained in Chapter IV of Chinese Maritime Code similar to Section VIII "Special Provisions regarding Voyage Charter Party" to regulate the special issues of COA. The author is of the view that the statutory provisions regulating COA and relating to the most basic obligations of the parties, the benefit of third parties, and the liability regime of the parties should be mandatory, whereas other statutory provisions could be applicable on non-mandatory basis and consequently the parties to COA could enjoy freedom of contract in negotiating contractual provisions.