The Liability Of Carrier For Delay In Delivery

The world has seen a long history of sea carriage. Currently, more than85%ofgoods in global trade are transported by sea so that carriage by sea is playing asignificant role in global transportation. Except its indispensability, carriage by sea isaccompanied by various challenges and risks. In order to encourage shipping service,domestic laws invariably set less strict rules on blaming sea carriers. From theancient times to nowadays, sea carriers endeavor to deliver goods safely, but paymuch less attention to the time of performance. Scholars conducting research on acarrier’s liability also tend to concentrate more on cargo damage and compensationthan on-time delivery. Therefore, the issue of delay in delivery is always relegated toa secondary position in maritime law study.With the development of economy, shippers and consignees are paying moreattention on the time of delivery and they may have higher requirement on on-timedelivery. Those old laws and rules can no longer adjust the relationship betweenparties of a contract of carriage as well as before. All in all, to build a comprehensivelegal system of sea carriers’ liability for delay in delivery is not only a need of worlddevelopment, but also a requirement of maintaining a regular order of global trade.The harmonization on the related rules on the liability of delay in delivery did notbegin until the mid-1970s. The Hamburg Rules firstly regulates the concept of delay in delivery in a separate provision and introduces this issue into the internationalunified legal system. Till now, the criteria and legal basis of judgment on delay caseshave been roundly improved through40-year attempt and effort of the world,experiencing a process from an absent situation to a relatively completed status. Theprinciple of blaming changed from false-based principle to false-presumed principle.The amount of limitation of liability ruled in latest conventions is also much higherthan those old ones. On the whole, the legal system of liability for delay in deliveryis relatively comprehensive, as it contains the concept, principle of liability, extent ofloss and compensation, limitation of liability, exception of liability and loss of rightof limitation. However, in details, the rules and provisions on delay in delivery stillhave lots of defects to correct and improve.Focus on the contract of carriage of goods by sea, this paper analyses the legalliability of a sea carrier for the damage or loss caused by or related to delay indelivery performed by it. It seeks to provide a detailed answer to the question—towhat extent should the sea carrier be liable for delay in delivery? To discuss thisprimary topic, there are several sub-topics examined, including the concept, the maincauses and the legal basis of delay in delivery, the classification of damage and loss,the compensation rules and the limitation of liability of a sea carrier. In the end of thepaper, the legal status of Chinese Maritime Law on this issue is discussed and alsosome suggestions on how to improve defective rules are given. To explain the topics,this paper analyzes and compares the unified international conventions on carriageby sea and domestic laws of those countries who are leaders in the shipping service;additionally, this paper introduces settled cases, mainly in the UK and the USA.Therefore, this paper has a wide coverage of laws and regulations from differentlegal jurisdictions. By doing a study on the topic of delay in delivery, not only canwe arrive at a comprehensive knowledge of it, but also provide the cargo owners tosome extent with some useful suggestions when dealing with the disputes.