A Study On The Allocating Of Burden Of Proof In Marine Carrie's Obligation Basis

From the outset, one crucially important concept must be borne in mind in studying the order and burden of proof under The Hague Rules. The Hague Rules, from their inception in 1924, sought to strike a delicate balance among three interrelated principles: a) carrier'obligation to exercise due diligence to make the ship sea worthy before and at the commencement of the voyage (art. 3(1)); b)the carrier'obligation to care properly and carefully for the cargo (art.3(2)); and c) the carrier'exculpatory exceptions under art. 4(2)(a) to (q).Allocating liability for marine cargo claims under the Rules depends, in many cases, on the court'analysis of the interplay between these three notions. It requires a skill resembling that of a juggler juggling three ballast a circus. There are plenty of topics involves the burden of proof in the maritime law, such as the proof of the burden during collision and general average etc.But in this paper, I will only discuss the allocation of proof burden between the cargo owner and the shipper on occasion of damage or loss of cargo. Cause of cargo damage, or loss is even more, leeway and violation of deck transport rules are likely to leading to the cargo damage or loss, but the scope of discussion in this paper is only limited to the allocation of proof burden that is the composition of liability foundation of the shipper, that is to say, we only discuss the intertwined relationship among the care duty of cargo,seaworthiness obligations and exemption causes regulated by laws, putting aside the damage of cargo on account of leeway or deviation.The paper is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction of the allocation of proof burden involves cargo damage during carriage by sea, through the basic information of meaning and amendment of proof burden, analyzing the allocation of proof burden of shipper in our Maritime Law. Chapter 2 is liability and allocation of proof burden of shipper under The Hague Rules, according to the introduction of liability of marine carrier and study on the framework of proof burden among the immunity clause,care for cargo,seaworthiness obligation. Chapter 3 is allocation of proof burden of liability foundation of shipper in our country, mainly discuss the special Chinese characteristics of liability system of shipper compared to other countries when adopt The Hague rules. The purpose of this paper is illustrating the unreasonable allocation of proof burden of cargo damage by sea in our Maritime Law and proposing the modification solution. Chapter four is the"conclusion", on basis of summery and synthesis of the preambles, clearing up concrete idea of the allocation of proof burden under The Hague rule and our Maritime Law.