Our Country "maritime Law" To Identify The Shipper And The Rights And Obligations

Maritime Code of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter called "Maritime Code") borrowed ideas from the shipper’s definition of Hamburg Rules formulating two types of shippers, but differently, there is only one shipper existing under Hamburg Rules in any circumstance, instead, there may be two shippers existing concurrently under certain condition, especially for the aforesaid ambiguous definitions of two types of shippers, makes the shipper’s recognition difficult under the terms of FOB. Meanwhile, the terms of FOB make the two types of shippers separated, but the rights and obligations with respect to the two types of shippers have not been stipulated separately, many disputes often occurred in practice. Hence, how to recognize the legal status and its rights and obligations of the two types of shippers shall be the important parts of Maritime Code to be amended in the future.This thesis shall be mainly analyzed the shipper’s definition, rights and obligations hereunder, totally including five chapters, by comparing with China Maritime Code and China Contract Law as well as comparing with 1924 Hague Rules, 1968 Visby Rules,1978 Hamburg Rules and Rotterdam Rules which was adopted on December 11,2008 but not become effective by now.The first chapter briefly introduced the historical evolution and development of the shipper’s definition and its rights and obligations. The second chapter, third chapter and fourth chapter mainly analyzed the current legislative shortcomings and deficiencies with respect to the shippers under the Maritime Code, including three parts:analyzing shipper’s definition, analyzing the right allocation of two kinds of shippers by discussing the shipper’s right of obtaining transport documents, right of control, right to sue and right of contract termination; And further analyzed the current legislative shortcomings and deficiencies of shipper’s obligations under the Maritime Code, especially for the issue as to freight payment. The fifth chapter raised advices on how to improve shipper’s definition and its rights and obligations, by comparing the terms of Hague Rules, Visby Rules, Hamburg Rules and Rotterdam Rules. Firstly, the shipper is clearly distinguished under Rotterdam Rules, which is recommendable, so it is suggested that the two kinds of shipper ought to be defined as "shipper" and "documentary shipper", but given the China’s special conditions and circumstances, the prerequisite of documentary shipper should be revised accordingly in Maritime Code, rather than fully copied. Secondly, the author agrees that the shipper’s right of obtaining the transport documents shall be preferentially granted to consigner, but the right of control and right to sue shall be granted to the two types of shippers. Finally, the shipper’s obligations allocation should be further clarified and modified. The foreword mainly introduced the subject significance and the conclusion primarily summarized the whole contents and analysis approaches.