A Study On The Legal Liability Of Operators Of Transport Terminals For Delivery Of Goods Without Lawful Document

With the development of merchant shipping,operators of transport terminals has play an important role in the industry. The legal status of operators of transport terminals is still not clear. Bill of lading(hereafter referred to as B/L) is an important commercial document. Delivering goods with original B/L is an international principle. From importation to picking up the goods,a delivery order(hereafter referred to as D/O) is a warrant for customs clearance and picking up the goods.This paper tries to analyze the liabilities issues under different conditions. Such as the carrier delivering of goods without B/L and the operator of transport terminal delivering of goods with D/O,the operator of transport terminal arbitrarily delivering of goods without D/O,the carrier delivering of goods without B/L and the operator of transport terminal without D/O. The the liability of operators of transport terminals for delivery of goods without lawful document is an important and complicated problem. The lawful document mainly includes B/Land D/O.The liability mainly includes: the qualification of defendant,the port operator obligations,limitation of liability,the compensation standard etc. In addition,the 2008 Rotterdam rules is another important international maritime law,following the Hague rules,the Hague-Visby Rules,and the Hamburg rules. Though it has not come into effect,it provides some new opinions to research on this problem.