Comparative Research On Legal Problems Related To Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (NVOCC)

With the rapid development of international trade and modern logistics, The Non-Vessel-Operating services business have become imperative to international carriage of goods by sea, as is specialized more and more. The mechanism of Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (hereinafter referred as to NVOCC) comes to become important; in the circumstances that prospective is sea-borne container transport and international multimodal transport. It is as of January 1st, 2002 that The International Shipping Regulations of the People's Republic of China (Hereinafter referred as to the Rules) takes effect to establish the system of NVOCC in P. R. China.The Non-Vessel-Operating services business has been cultivated into the stage of rapid and canonical development since the Rules was put into effect for seven years, during which Non-vessel Carriers have been growing increasingly, cross-acting as freight forwarder and NVOCC. The concerns and issues of undefined responsibility and liability arising out of the cross-acting have been sorted out mostly. Nonetheless, a new mechanism, in effect, comes up with various comprehensions as well as loopholes therein inevitably, which shall be brought to perfection in the progress of development and getting more and more mature by research.Through the comparative study of relevant legal problems, the thesis largely discourses upon the issues of NVOCC in the perspective of relevant laws and regulations, typically in reliance of the Rules, Maritime Code of P. R. China, with reference to American Shipping Act of 1984, Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998 and international practice and usage. The thesis consists of four chapters, namely,Chapter one focuses on the evolution of the NVOCC system. In this chapter, the author summarize the origin and the development of non-vessel-operating carrier, On this bases, through the introduction of the U.S. system of NVOCC and its production and development in China, expounds that transplanted from United States, but the NVOCC as an independent subject in the ocean shipping commenced in the shipping practice of the world, and is a result of practice of Marine globalization, rather than simply a continuation of the U.S. legal system.The second chapter begins by discussing the scope of business of NVOCC and its main business processes, and then in contrast to the relevant laws and regulations of NVOCC in the U.S. and China which define the similarities and differences of the legal status of NVOCC , and on this basis, The thesis analyze the double identity of NVOCC, clear the legal status of NVOCC, and from the angle of NVOCC as carrier and as shipper ,analyzing its identity characteristics and its relation with international freight service operators, international multimodal transport etc. Chapter three this chapter introduces emphatically the non-vessel shipping management system in the U.S. and its counterpart in P.R.China, and then proposes some views on the existing problems.In chapter four, the author discusses several typical practice problems in non-vessel shipping business, emphatically analyzes the lien on cargo of NVOCC, NVOCC's limitation of liability for maritime claims and liability insurance system, etc.In this thesis, the author brings issues up by the method of comparison, in combination of related provisions of Chinese and foreign laws and regulations and the international practice of NVOCC, probing into definition, characteristics, legal status and regulatory system and the problems related to the practice, etc. The author strives to provide valuable references for perfecting the related legal system of NVOCC.