Research On Defining The Status Of International Sea Freight Forwarder And Its Rights And Liabilities

In modern society, international sea freight forwarder is a very crucial subject in international trade and international transport of goods. Historically, international sea freight forwarders usually handled with the transportation of goods on behalf of the interested party relating to goods. At that time, there is no doubt that the international sea freight forwarder’s legal status was agent.However, with the vigorous development of the globalization and international trade, international sea freight forwarder’s status has been more and more important in the international trade. At the same time, its meaning has also been enriched and developed constantly. International sea freight forwarder has evolved from the original agent to the party of international contract of transportation, which can provide one-stop service. With the invention and using of the container transportation, the "port to port" transportation has been evolved into the "door to door" transportation. International multimodal transportation has risen in response to the proper time and conditions, at the same time, international sea freight forwarder can provide service as the multimodal transport operator. Engaged in the development of modern logistics, its service contents are becoming more and more. Recognition of international sea freight forwarding and logistics managers has become increasingly difficult. International sea freight forwarders may have multiple statuses, which are difficult to be identified.Due to the international sea freight forwarder’s broad business scope, the diversity and complexity of the business, international sea freight forwarders are known as "chameleon" in the industry. Compared with the rapid development of international sea freight forwarder industry in practice, the related laws and theoriesare seriously laggard. The research on international sea freight forwarder at home and abroad is not very sufficient. So far, the world is still no accurate definition for international maritime freight forwarder’s legal status and liabilities. There is no uniform international convention to rule and regulate it, with the deficiency of laws related to international sea freight forwarding. In our country, there is no systematic legislation for international sea freight forwarders. There are a few laws and regulations related to international sea freight forwarding, which have less legal effectiveness generally.The study of international sea freight forwarder is a very complicated issue, which is professional with high practicality. The paper analyzes the development history and connotation of international sea freight forwarderin the first. Then discriminating between international sea freight forwarder and other relevant concepts. Secondly the paper compares common law system countries with civil law system countries in legislation and judiciary by typical cases. Meanwhile, summarizing different types of international sea freight forwarder status identification standards with the agency theory of civil law. Discussing the application of law about different types of international sea freight forwarder on the basis of that, from the perspective of international private law. Thirdly, determining the specific rights, obligations and liabilities according to their respectivelegal statuses. On the basis of analyzing the external environment they face, striving to offer some suggestions for the improvement of the system of international sea freight forwarding. In addition, by analyzing the risks of different status of international sea freight forwarders may face, to discusses how to perfect the law and risk avoidance in practice. In order to be helpful to the international sea freight forwarding legal practice in China.