A Study On Application Of Actual Carrier In International Multimodal Transport Of Goods

The carrier's liability for the international multimodal transport of goods and the connotation of the actual carrier liability are both controversial topics in academic community.There apparently exists similarity between the relationship between the multimodal transport operator and the carrier responsible for different legs of transport and that between the contractual carrier and the actual carrier who is entrusted to perform the carriage of unimodal transportation,while the latter has already been governed by the law of transport of goods by sea or air,as called the actual carrier responsibility system.Therefore,to explore the application of the actual carrier responsibility system which is originally designed to apply in field of unimodal transport,into international multimodal transport of goods is of theoretical value and can provide guidance for legal practice.Nowadays,the existing international legal framework on multimodal transport mainly focuses on the regulation of liability of the multimodal transport operator who is responsibility for the whole transport,leaving the liability of segment carriers to be governed by the relevant applicable national laws.The thesis attempts to explore,based on the legal system of China,whether the segment carrier for different transport legs,with no contract privity with the cargo interest? can be seen as an actual carrier and analyzes other futher questions thereafter may arise,e.g.the liability of terminal operators who provides services to connect different legs in multimodal transport.In the first chapter,the author has made an overall explanation including the background and connotation of the actual carrier responsibility system under the Warsaw Convention and Montreal Convention in the field of air transport,and similar regulations under the Hamburg Rules in the field of maritime transport.Following such international practice,China has adopted the regulations concerning the actual carrier into the Civil Aviation Law of the People's Republic of China and the Maritime Law of the People's Republic of China.' It is to be clarified that actual carrier responsibility system is an exception to the Doctrine of Privity of Contract,so the author also expounds its theoretical basis and the legal nature of the actual carrier's liability.In the second chapter,the thesis based on the current legal system of China,respectively discuses and analyzes the identification and responsibility of the actual carriers in the different segments of transportation including maritime leg,railway leg,road leg,air leg,coastal and inland waterway leg.Then the author draws the conclusion concerning whether actual carrier can be applied in different legs under multimodal transportation.In the third chapter,the thesis refers to the content of the revision version of the Maritime Law issued by the Ministry of Transport in 2018 and points out its possible impact on the application of actual carrier in multimodal transport,e.g.the legislative trend of application of actual carrier responsibility system in inland waterway transport and expanding the scope of actual carrier to include port operators,etc.The author then predicts and analyses the possible problems which may be caused by beforementioned changes,including the issue of responsibilities of port operators who provide intermediate services between different modes of transport.In the last chapter,the author makes some legislative suggestions on the revision of the Maritime Law concerning the scope of application of the actual carrier in multimodal transportation.For example,it is useful to add cohesive clause which allows the application of actual carrier in the maritime leg under the contract of international multimodal transport of goods.Meanwhile,by drawing lessons from the international legislative 'experience and judicial practice on multimodal transport,besides'entrustment standard' and 'geographical standard','functional standard' needs to be added to supplement defining the concept of port operator that can be included in the scope of actual carrier,in order to solve the problem concerning the conflicts of responsibilities of port operators as mentioned in the third chapter.