International Freight Forwarders Legal Status Of The Study

The freight forwarder plays an important role in international cargo transport, or rather, in international trade. However, its legal status has always been not so identifiable, because it combines such roles as follows in one: agent of the cargo owners, NVOCC, Multi-model transport operator, etc. This dissertation, based on the prevailing laws and regulations, makes analysis on the three aforesaid key legal status of freight forwarders.Part one of this dissertation focuses on the freight forwarder's identity as agent of cargo owners. Agency, which is classified into direct agency and indirect agency in continental legal genealogy, is categorized as agency for named principal, agency for unnamed principal and agency for undisclosed agency in Anglo-American legal family. In China, The General Principles of Civil Law provided only direct agency, following the model of continental legal family. The Chinese Contract Law introduced agency for unnamed principal and agency for undisclosed principal, nevertheless, it provided indirect agency simultaneously, which, the author of this dissertation believes, will result in conflicts in the application of law. The legislation models compared, the author of this dissertation suggests abandoning the continental model.Part two makes analysis on freight forwarder's identity as Independent operator, rather than as agent. The independent operator is a typical Chinese legal concept which means a very wide scope. This part focuses on NVOCC and multi-model transport operator. As these two figures, the freight forwarder assumes the responsibilities of a party.Part three focuses on how to distinguish its legal status. There is not any way of identifying its status that is applicable to all situations; the only proper way is to depend on circumstances. However, the...