A Study On Shipbuilder's Liability Of Warranty Of Quality In Shipbuilding Contracts

With the rapid development of China's shipbuilding industry.China has become the global leader overtaking South Korea and Japan in the Shipbuilding completions area for the past four years in succession.But at the same time,Chinese shipbuilders have repeatedly lost in the court and arbitration because of the disputes and legal issues which are caused by shipbuilding contracts.This inflicts great economic damages on both Chinese shipyards and shipbuilding industry.The quality disputes of ship is one of the main legal issues in shipbuilding practice,especially after the global financial crisis,many ship buyers choose to abandon the ship as shortage of funds and other reasons.This paper,by citing relative precedents and guarantee system under different authorities,discusses and analyzes the builder's warranty guarantee and indemnity liability under shipbuilding contracts.Meanwhile,according to law and new situation,the author puts forward feasible suggestion to help shipbuilders to avoid the financial losses caused by shipbuilder's liability of warranty of quality and to protect their own interest.This paper divides into four parts.The first part is a definition of the shipbuilder's warranty of quality.Analyzing the relationship between the liability and duties of shipbuilder is to pinpoint the definition and legal attributes of shipbuilder's liability of guarantee.In this part,the author will make further discussion on warranty range and warranty period.The second part is related to the confirmation of the liability of warranty of quality under shipbuilding contracts,including the determination of the principles of liability,components,exemptions.The third part studies the liability form of shipbuilder's warranty of quality combining with warranty of quality clause under the shipbuilding contracts.The shipowner shall notify the shipbuilder of any defects for which claim is made under this guarantee as promptly as possible after discovery thereof.The shipbuilder shall remedy at its expense or pay for the reasonable cost and expenses.The forth part puts forward feasible suggestion based on the discussion above to ensure that the shipbuilder's interest under the warranty terms of shipbuilding contracts would not be infringed and the legitimate right would be exercised.