Research On The Legal Nature Of The Underlying Contracts Of Liner Shipping Futures

Liner shipping futures are a relatively new research area in shipping finance law.The liner freight index futures developed by the Shanghai Futures Exchange and the liner capacity futures developed by the Dalian Commodity Exchange have both obtained project approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission at the end of 2019,and the preparations for listing are being carried out in an orderly manner.Today,when liner shipping futures are about to come out,the legal community still lacks attention and research on shipping financial derivatives,including liner shipping futures.Understanding the connotation of liner shipping futures and clarifying the legal nature of the basic contract involved in liner shipping futures are the basis for further theoretical research on liner shipping futures and the premise for studying the application of the law on liner shipping futures.Therefore,this article is devoted to the study of the legal nature of the underlying contract involved in liner shipping futures.The first chapter of this article is the basic theoretical preparation for the study of this thesis.Liner shipping futures,which are the subjects of this thesis,are a new type of shipping derivatives,and the first section clarifies its basic concepts from its basic attributes,definitions,targets and classifications.The second section first clarifies that the underlying contract involved in futures refers to the contract formed by futures investors to carry out futures trading activities on futures exchanges,and then after introducing and commenting on the different understandings of the legal nature of the underlying contract involved in futures by existing theories,the theory of double-tier futures trading is introduced,and on the basis of this theory,the legal structure of the underlying contract involved in liner shipping futures is clarified.Section III distinguishes and briefly understands the two-tier contracts under the new theory that constitute the underlying contracts involved in liner shipping futures.Chapter II of this article analyzes the legal nature and application of the first layer of the basic contract involved in liner shipping futures,the liner shipping futures trading contract.From the object point of view,as the object of the futures trading contract,the futures contract is derived from the underlying asset and has value,and is tradable after securitization,so it has property attributes.From the main point of view,the main body of the futures trading contract has a dual nature,the main body of the contract at the time of transaction is the buyer and seller,and after the intervention of the central counterparty,the contract is replaced by the contract,and the contract subject is ultimately the trader and the central counterparty.Under the arrangement of the property of the object and the identity of the counterparty,the futures trading contract gives the futures trader the "option" to perform the contract,that is,the futures contract can be closed by hedging,or the futures contract can be held until the contract expires for futures delivery.A futures trading contract is a financial contract with a futures contract as the subject.The liner shipping futures trading contract is slightly different from the general futures trading contract in terms of the value of the object and the scope of the subject,but it does not affect that it has the same legal nature as the general futures trading contract.Finally,the Futures and Derivatives Act and its supporting regulations shall be fully applicable to the contract for the trading of liner shipping futures in the application of law.Chapter III of this article analyzes the legal nature and application of the second layer of the basic contract involved in liner shipping futures,the liner shipping futures contract.Liner shipping futures contract reflects the liner shipping futures delivery legal relationship,that is,the transfer of the subject of the futures contract between the contract subjects,according to the different futures contract subjects,liner shipping futures contracts can be divided into two categories: liner shipping capacity futures contracts and liner freight index futures contracts,which are derived from liner shipping services and liner freight rate indexes.Section I examines the legal nature of liner capacity futures contracts,in which general commodity futures contracts delivered in kind are essentially standard contracts for sale and purchase;through deterministic analysis and hypothetical analysis of the contents of liner capacity futures contracts,it is considered that liner capacity futures contracts are an anonymous contract that may encompass the contractual relationships involved in multiple carriages.Section 2 studies the legal application of liner capacity futures,and holds that liner capacity futures are commodity futures and should apply the relevant laws and regulations of commodity futures,but should apply the Maritime Law and other relevant laws and regulations on the carriage of goods by sea when handling delivery disputes.The third section mainly analyzes the legal nature of cash delivery liner freight index futures,first analyzes the cash delivery futures contract represented by stock index futures,which is essentially a cash settlement agreement,and its subject is a stock index;and then makes a complete statement of the legal nature of liner freight index futures by comparing the stock index and the liner freight index.Section IV provides a brief analysis of the application of the law to liner freight index futures,which can be applied to commodity futures other than physical delivery.