The Study Of Withdrawal Of Vessel By The Owner In Time Charter

The withdrawal of vessel is a way for the shipowner to deprive the charterer of the right to use the vessel if the charterer fails to perform its required obligations.If certain acts of the charterer violate the legal provisions or the contractual agreement,the shipowner has the right to unilaterally withdraw the vessel in operation,and the rights and obligations of the parties under the time charter are terminated before the date of expiration.Meanwhile,the act of withdrawal of vessel contains many controversial legal issues,and under the same issue,there are great differences between English law and the Chinese law in the way of judging.The author intends to make a clear analysis in this article.The paper is divided into three parts:introduction,body and conclusion.The body part is divided into four chapters.The main contents are as follows:Chapter 1 discusses the basis for the shipowner to exercise the right to withdraw the vessel.First of all,this chapter clarifies that the right to withdraw a vessel is both a statutory and agreed right of rescission.Secondly,it clarifies the conditions that the shipowner shall meet to withdraw a vessel in accordance with the contractual or legal provisions under English law and Chinese law respectively and compares the difficulty of withdrawing a vessel of different waysChapter 2 studies the legal limitation of the shipowner's right of withdrawal Firstly,this chapter introduces the rule of waiver and estoppel under English law.It lists the possible application of this rule in the withdrawal of vessel and analyses the rationality of such application.Then it compares waiver and estoppel with the loss of right to terminate a contract under Chinese law.Secondly,it summarizes the situation in which the charterer may or may not deduct the hire stipulated by time charter clauses and English Equity Law and clarifies the related problems of deduction in advance and excessive deduction by the charterer.Then it compares the spirit reflected by provisions of hire deduction and relevant cases under Chinese law with that under English law.Thirdly,it analyses the application of common anti-skilled clauses in time charter and the matters which should be paid attention on when the shipowner issues anti-skilled notice.Then it compares the anti-skilled clauses with the provisions of grace period under Chinese law.Chapter 3 studies the right of claim of the shipowner after the vessel is withdrawn.Firstly,this chapter analyzes the feasibility of the claim by the shipowner in accordance with the compensation clauses in time charter under English law.Secondly,in view of the fact that in most cases the shipowner withdraws the vessel shortly after the charterer breaching the contract in practice,it also discusses the feasibility of the claim on the ground that the hire payment clause is a conditional clause.Thirdly,it studies the contractual clauses and legal provisions on loss compensation in Chinese chartering practice.Finally,it introduces the principles for determining the amount of damage.Chapter 4 studies the right and obligation of the shipowner against the third party after the vessel is withdrawn.Firstly,this chapter discusses the two situations of issue of owner's bill of lading or charterer's bill of lading under English law.Secondly,it analyses the legal status of the shipowner when it serves as an actual carrier under Chinese law.