On The Case Of Container Claim Of The Pacific Sunrise Company

The international conventions involving the marine transport of goods are HagueRules, Hague-visby Rules and Hamburg Rules, which were concluded betweennations of various benefits during the development of shipping. The above threeinternational conventions exist differences as to principles, scopes and limitations ofcarrier’s responsibility, which leads to confusions and conflicts when the conventionsare applied. China has not been the member of the mentioned internationalconventions, however, we established Marine Law of PRC with Chinesecharacteristics on the basis of the above conventions.The liability system of carriers and actual carriers adjusts balance between themerchant and the carrier so directly that plays an important role in the marine laws.Majority of the international marine cases argue about the liable part andresponsibility among carriers, actual carriers and merchants, that is why the rulesregard to carriers and actual carriers take core effects in the laws of marine transport.The specialization of international marine transport brings the development ofnon-vessel operation carriers who do not have vessels but commission their transportto the actual carriers. The concept of “actual carrier” first appeared in HamburgerRules and similar concept is under Marine Law of PRC.This case is typical of highly involved damage value, many involved parties,various focuses of dispute and strong resistance to take evidences, thus it is taken asan exemplary case. The prosecutor is the Pacific Sunrise Company while thedefendants are Haimao International Marine Transport Co.Ltd, Shanghai FanyaMarine Transport Co.Ltd and COSCO Container Co.Ltd. It takes2years to get thefinal judgment. During hearing of the case, the major disputes focus on whetherShanghai Fanya can be regarded as the defendant, whether the carrier and the actualcarrier have fulfilled their duty of seaworthiness as well as care of cargo and so forth.After targeted analysis of the above disputes, we can conclude as following: Chinaacts in the world not only a large shipping country but also a major trading nation. Inorder to play a responsible role in the international marine transport, on one hand, weshould make more profound study on the legal system of carriers and actual carriers,on the other hand, we should grasp the direction of international lawmaking of marinetransport so as to balance the interest between the shipper and the merchant, only in this way can we make our legal system of marine transport more scientific andfunctional.