Research On The System Of Carrier’s Liability In International Carriage Of Goods By Sea

The carrier’s liability could be describe as the core content of the international carriage of goods by sea.The improvement of the carrier’s liability is of great significance to the development of the cause of the carriage of goods by sea for a country.However,with respect to the carrier’s liability system,there are discrepancies as to the relevant provisions both in international conventions and in certain domestic laws. These different rules often lead to different processing results in litigation or arbitration on the same case, many rules of the international convention and domestic law have been been unable to meet the new requirements of development in the maritime practice, which causes the emergence of the Rotterdam Rules.As the representative of the current rules of international carriage of goods by sea,its many new regulations are of great significance to the improvement of Chinese Maritime Law. As Chinese Maritime Law comes into force in 1993, has shown a lot of shortcomings in the judicial practice, especially its rules of carrier’s liability have been unable to meet the practical needs in the development of contemporary maritime practice. So, combined with the actual situation at home and abroad, it is imperative to change the rules of carrier’s liability in Chinese Maritime Code by reference to several traditional maritime conventions especially the Rotterdam rules, which is of great significance to keep up with the trend of the development of international maritime law and the promotion of the vigorous development of China’s shipping enterprises.The thesis is divided into five chapters. the first chapter mainly discusses the basic problems of the carrier’s liability,it includes two aspects: Firstly, the legal meaning of the carrier’s liability, in other words, how to define the carrier’s liability in law,what kind of meaning it includes in law, and what is the legal basis of its emergence and existence? Secondly, the legal nature of the carrier’s liability, what kind of liability does it belong to? The liability for tort? The liability for breach? Or the mixture of both two liabilities? From a different point of view, it will come to a different conclusion.The second chapter analyzes the subject of the carrier’s liability. The fist section described that with the development of the maritime practice and the adjustment of the maritime convention, the concept of the subject of the carrier’s liability also become more mature. The range of the main body of the carrier’s liability and the imputation mechanism have been more and more clearly defined.With the standardization of the relevant system of the subject of the carrier’s liability, its legal applicability is also getting stronger,which is more conducive to the fulfillment of the carrier’s liability and the protection of the rights of the owner of the goods. The second section manly described the identification of the subject of the carrier’s liability, it relate to the identification of the compensation object in the first time when damage occurs,this part is discussed from three aspects:the identification of carrier, the identification of actual carrier and the identification of special subject.The third chapter is about the identification of the carrier’s liability. it is divided into three parts.The first section mainly discussed some concept of the identification of the carrier’s liability. By comparing and distinguishing the principle of liability of the carrier and the basis of the responsibility of this group of concepts, Affirmed the importance of the carrier’s imputation principle in the system of carrier’s liability. The second section mainly discussed the types of the carrier’s imputation principle, in other words, the carrier’s imputation principle has experienced what kind of stages on its development and evolution,it analyzed different liability identification form during each period. The third section mainly discussed the basis of the formation of the carrier’s imputation principle in the Chinese Maritime Law, and analyzed its future development trend.The fourth chapter mainly discussed the scope of the carrier’s liability. In addition to the general liability of the carrier, in this chapter, the carrier’s liability is simply divided into two types:First, the minimum liability of the carrier. Firstly, the article discussed and analyzed.the historical evolution of the minimum liability from the legal perspective. And then discussed the specific content of the minimum liability of carrier from “Guarantee the proper navigation of the ship”and “Properly manage the goods” these two aspects. The second liability is the burden of proof of the carrier,discussed the specific distribution of burden of proof between the carrier and the shipper in three different situations.The fifth chapter puts forward some suggestions on the amendment and improvement of the carrier’s liability system in the Chinese Maritime Law. And then, from the legal provisions of the text in the setting and presentation, the carrier’s imputation principle, the carrier’s liability period and the burden of proof these four areas, put forward its corresponding amendment suggestions.