On The Status Of Guarantees In The Maritime Law

Letter of indemnity is a kind of document in shipping practice, The appearance and application of letter of indemnity in sea transportation have been the focus of people's attention and consideration in sea transportation theory and practice. In one respect, it brings great efficiency and economic value to international trade, it lubricate the trade and shipping development. In another respect, it causes disorder to the international trade, especially the unbelievable and unsafe of bill of lading, and makes cheating convenient in trade, so there are a lot of dispute about letter of indemnity in theory and practice. Due to these, the author realizes that it is necessary to do some research work on it in a systematic way.The article focuses on the following issues: the nature and validity of letter of indemnity, the risk, the application of law, suggestion of China Maritime Code. These issues are addressed in different way in different countries, whether by law or by practices. So the article describes these issues according to many countries' laws and practices by comparison.The article begins with letter of indemnity's background, first briefly introduce the concept of letter of indemnity, next the common kind of letter of indemnity in practice, Weighing its advantage and disadvantage, the author put emphasis on the economic value in international trade and sea transport, discuss its reasonable and illegible through the civil law.The most important part of this article is the validity of letter of indemnity, different countries hold various standpoints on this question and so far there is not a general conclusion on it in global sphere. This leads to the unbelievable of bill of lading and bad influence for shipping industry and trade. According to the theory and practice in different countries, as well as "Hamburger Rules" this article is attempting to do a detailed analysis on the various cases and legislation by a comparative method for the purpose of clarifying the validity of letter of indemnity, the author try toanalysis its validity in detail. Another focus of this article is the risk. The author tries to propose some good suggestion so as to invading the risk in practice.In the end of the article, the future of letter of indemnity in China is discussed in particular. Thinking that there are some blank ingredients in China Maritime Code concerning, the author makes some suggestion on the amendment of China Maritime Code in order to make letter of indemnity better improve shipping and trade development.