Study On The Seaworthy Obligation Of The Marine Transportation

As a basic and paramount obligation of carrier in transportation of vessel by sea, seaworthiness obligation play an important role in the practice in international maritime law。Our maritime law requires that the carrier "shall be bound before and at the beginning of the voyage to exercise to make the ship seaworthy, equip, man and supply the ship properly and make the holds, refrigerating and cool chambers, and all others parts of the ship in which goods are carried, fitted and safe." However, there are some controversy and misunderstanding to the issue of seaworthiness obligation for a long time. For example, how to define the "beginning time of the voyage" and the "Due diligence". As for some International Convention, such as:"Hague Rules", "Hague-Visby Rules", "Hamburg Rules" and "Rotterdam Rules", on maritime transportation of goods developed by International Maritime Organization according to the environment and needs of international shipping, each of them has its unique philosophical basis and historical background and different definition, range and position of the seaworthiness obligation of carrier. As the development of international ocean transportation, the theory and legislation of international maritime law has been improved deeply which is an important reference of maritime law of china to make legislation of maritime law with the time and meet the trends of international shipping legislation. So, in this essay, we concrete the suggestion and strategy about maritime law of our country on the foundation of the analysis of seaworthiness obligation and the theory and legislation of international maritime law.The main contents and ideas of this essay are as follows:At first, we discussed the research background, purpose and meaning of seaworthiness obligation, and sorted out the research status of seaworthiness obligation to provide the theoretical basis of investigating the seaworthiness obligation. Then, we elaborated the history and discussed the status of seaworthiness obligation, focused on the contents and standard of seaworthiness obligation, definition of "The beginning time of the voyage" and the exemption condition and the allocation of the burden of proof as well as analyzed the impact on seaworthiness obligation of Rotterdam Rules. Based on the theoretical analysis, we pointed out the trends of legislation international maritime law and elaborated the theory and legislation of representative countries, such as UK, US, and pointed out the shortcoming and status of the theory and legislation of our country. At last, we putted forward specific recommendations to modify china's maritime law on the basis of analysis, synthesis and reference to foreign legislation.