Rent Payments On The Time Charter Right Of The Lessor Under The Terms Of The Disarmament And Related Issues

As we all know, time charterparties are quite different from other kinds of contracts. Both the maritime laws and the contract laws can apply to the time charterparties. There are a great many complicated legal problems in the charterparties and one of them is the right to cancel the contract. A charterparty includes several different kinds of rights of cancellation. For the convenience of discussion, this dissertation is concentrated on the Owners' right of withdrawal of the vessel under the hire payment clauses. The major research methods adopted by this dissertation are the comparison between the Chinese laws and the English Laws on the captioned right of cancellation, narration as well as comments. As is know to all, the English Laws represent the international mainstream standpoints in the regime of maritime laws and the Chinese laws are our local laws. There are some differences between the Chinese laws and the English laws on the interpretation of the contract and related regulations on the time charterparties, which need us to discuss.This dissertation can be divided into four chapters.The first chapter is about the legal grounds that entitle the owners to cancel a time charterparty respectively under the Chinese laws and the English laws. After the detailed and clear analysis, the captioned right of withdrawal is identified as one kind of rights of cancellation stipulated by contract. On the other hand, according to the unique classification under the continental law system, the captioned right is a kind of rights of formation. The discussion in this chapter provides significant theoretical basis for the following chapters.The second chapter is focused on the prerequisites of exercising the captioned right of withdrawal. On the basis of the provisions in the NYPE 46, NYPE 93, BALTIME and SINOTIME, the author is of the opinion that there are two prerequisites of exercising the captioned right of withdrawal. One is that the payment of hire is not made punctually; another is that the amount of the payment is not enough.The third chapter deals with the correct manner of withdrawal and the proper time to withdraw the vessel. During the discuss, the English theory of 'waiver and estoppel' and the related regulations in Chinese contract laws are involved.The fourth chapter is devoted to the legal effects of withdrawal. A various situations are investigated, including the issuing of the Owner's B/L, the issuing of Charterers' B/L, the issuing of the freight collect B/L and the issuing of the freight prepaid B/L. Under the circumstances of issuing the Charterer's B/L, the author expatiates the identification of the carrier. Finally, the problem on the compensation for damage after the withdrawal is illustrated.