A Study On Legal Problems Of Shipping Financial Derivatives

As a derived demand of international trade,international shipping is a very risky industry.The frequent fluctuations in international shipping market are not only affected by the level of economic development,but also the relevant national policies,natural conditions,as well as some unexpected events.Especially in recent years the international shipping market experienced dramatic ups and downs.For example,from 2004 to 2008,the shipping market is booming,and in May 2008,the Baltic Dry Index(BDI)has soared to a record 11,793 points.However,the 2008 financial crisis has had outbroken,the shipping industry was also suffered greatly.Freight has been declining since then on,even reached the lowest point of BDI in February 2016,say 290 points.The West countries have inspired by the even more fluctuated financial market,and through learning from financial market and innovating,shipping derivatives have emerged.Baltic International Freight Futures Exchange(BIFFEx),Forward Freight Agreement(FFA)and Freight Options have successively appeared,and all the above products has continually injected new blood into shipping financial derivatives market.The thesis is a study on legal problems of shipping financial derivatives in the hope of making some meaningful recommendations for the development of shipping financial derivatives.This thesis contains three part:the foreword,the main body,and the conclusion.The main body is composed of four chapters.The chapter one introduces the financial derivatives,shipping financial derivatives and the types of them and analyzes the differences and connections between different types.The chapter two analyzes the legal nature of shipping financial derivatives.Innovation of this chapter is to propose that shipping financial derivatives is a consensual contract which contains aleatory nature.The chapter three,which use FFABA 2007 as an example,analyzes the legal issues arises from agreement,and proposes some suggestions to improve our shipping derivatives legal system.The last chapter uses the first freight agreement dispute as an example,analyzes the issue of jurisdiction of shipping financial derivatives,and leads a conclusion from the analysis:the jurisdiction of shipping financial derivatives should be attributed to the People's Court currently;but in the long run,its jurisdiction should be vested in maritime court.