The Research On The Principles Of Imputation Of The Carrier’s Liability Under Rotterdam Rules

One of the most important parts of the law relating to the carriage of goods bysea is the carrier’s liability system, and as the core part of it, the principles ofimputation of the carrier’s liability have been attached great importance to. Itdetermines the interests between carriers and shippers, and also has a profound impacton the development of international trade and shipping industry. It has gone throughthe process of historical development from the strict liability to the incomplete faultliability and to the fault liability. At present, the law regulating international transportof goods by sea is far from uniform. Put aside each country’s domestic laws, threeinternational conventions on the carriage of goods by sea have already existed, theyare “Hague Rules”,“Hague-Visby Rules” and “Hamburg Rules”. The threeinternational conventions are different from each other on the issue of the carrier’sliability rules, which is very likely to lead to conflict, because we don’t know whichlaw or convention should be chosen. It will inevitably have an adverse impact on thedevelopment of international maritime transport and international trade. TheUNCITRAL is committed to the formulation of the United Nations Convention onContracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea (referred to"Rotterdam Rules"), which aims to end the situation that there are a variety ofdifferent liability regimes in the carriage of goods by sea at the same time, and adjuststhe laws relating to carriage of goods by sea. So, we can respond better to thechallenges of the practice of the maritime transport of goods.To analyzing the principles of imputation of the carrier’s liability underRotterdam Rules, this article tries to use a variety of methods, such as historicalanalysis, comparative analysis, normative analysis, empirical analysis, etc.This paper is divided into four parts. The first part is the overview of theprinciples of imputation of the carrier’s liability. First, it analyzes the basis of theimputation principles under the civil law and the history of the imputation principles.Then, it points out the types of the principle of imputation underlying the civil law.Then, it clarifies the development context of the principles of imputation of maritimecarrier’s liability as well as the motivation. In the second part, I systematicallyanalyze the principles of imputation of the carrier’s liability under Rotterdam Rules. Itincludes three parts, and they are the modifications on the nautical fault of the carrier’s exemption and the fire fault exemption, the exceptions to the presumption offault as well as the establishment of proof adversarial system. And it is the core part ofthis article. The third part is the application of the principles of imputation of thecarrier’s liability under Rotterdam Rules. It introduces the range of the carriers, theperiod of carrier responsibility and the scope of the damage. The fourth part is whatour China’s maritime law can learn from Rotterdam Rules. It analyzing the principlesof imputation of the carrier’s liability under Chinese Maritime Law, and Noteswherein the drawbacks. Allowing for the trends in legislation on laws regulatinginternational transport of goods by sea as well as our country’s specific circumstances,it tries to put forward several amendments on Chinese Maritime Law.Although the "Rotterdam Rules" is not yet in force, it has a great future. There isno doubt that later International or domestic legislation will follow it, and our China’smaritime law should make a change and conform to the trend of the times.