A Study On The Legal Status And Responsibility Of Performing Party During Carriage Of Goods By Sea

With the development of carriage of goods by sea and further division of work in the shipping field, the persons other than the carrier who take part in the carriage of goods by sea and physically performs or undertakes to perform all or part of the carrier's responsibilities under a contract of carriage are becoming a more and more important legal subject in the transport field. This legal subject on the one hand accelerates the development of carriage of goods by sea, and on the other hand makes the legal relations in international carriage of goods by sea more complicated. Therefore, this dissertation introduces the legal concept "performing party during carriage of goods by sea" which includes all persons mentioned above, and studies its legal status and legal liability in order to form a comparatively reasonable system of this subject's legal liabilities.This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the legal and practical foundation of the origin of performing party during carriage of goods by sea. Then, considering the minor differences between the maritime performing party under UNCITRAL Draft Transport Law and the performing party during carriage of goods by sea mentioned in this dissertation, this chapter produces a new definition which makes the object of this study clear. Chapter 2 focuses on the concerned international conventions and domestic laws. The advantages and disadvantages of these legal provisions are used for reference during the study of the legal status and liabilities of the performing party during carriage of goods by sea. Chapter 3 analyses the relationship between the performing party during carriage of goods by sea and the carrier as well as the cargo owners. It shows that the performing party during carriage of goods by sea is in dual legal status, i.e. on the one hand it is the independent contractor or sub-contractor of the carrier, and on the other hand it is a tort-feasor against the cargo owners. Meanwhile, as the performing party during carriage of goods by sea performs or undertakes to perform any of the carrier's responsibilities under a contract of carriage of goods by sea which is regulated by compulsory law, in order to maintain the legal relation's stability in the shipping field, the performing party during carriage of goods by sea should burden some carrier's legal compulsory obligations under the contract of carriage of goods by sea, which will breach the doctrine of privity of contract in the relations between it and cargo owners. Chapter 4 aims at forming a comparatively reasonable system of the legal liabilities of the performing party during carriage of goods by sea. It studies the core regime of law mainly about its period of responsibility, doctrine of liability fixation, limitation of liability and scope of liability. Chapter 5 turns to the dispute of the actual carrier and port terminal operator existing in the judicatory practice in China. The author suggests that the Chinese Maritime Code should introduce the concept of the performing party during carriage of goods by sea and establish the reasonable system of its legal liabilities.