Study On Legal Issues Of Container Demurrage

Container demurrage, as a significant evolution of modern transportation, has many advantages such as low costs, high efficiency, speediness and good safety, etc. However, the container itself is usually much more expensive in contrast with the traditional packages. Furthermore, the containers need adequately mobilizing for the purpose of ensuring the low costs of the carriage. Therefore, in the context of carriage by sea, the carriers, in order to recycle the containers in time after the completion of the carriage obligations, often write container-demurrage provisions in the contracts, by which they can excuss the demurrage according to the freight tariff if the consignees use the containers overdue. In practice, many disputes arise out due to the issues of container demurrage. It is difficult to apply the proper law because the character of the container demurrage is ambiguous. Non-obliged parties are possible to be involved in the lawsuits thanks to the confused imputation rules. The rate of the demurrage is settled unilaterally by the carrier without the consent of the shipper or the consignee. The rate is often very high, and the amount of the demurrage does not unusually outnumber the carriage freight itself.Although container demurrage is facing many problems, the academia seemingly shows little interest in this issue. No special law has yet been legislated to solve this problem. Therefore, the courts have met many difficulties before the cases concerning the container demurrage.Chapterâ… of this paper gives a brief introduction of the container-carriage flow and its management models. Chapterâ…¡, which lays the foundation for this paper's research, deals with the origin, background, patterns and their causes, and related laws and regulations of the container demurrage. Chapterâ…¢gives a systematic and qualitative analysis on the theoretical issues of the container demurrage such as its definition, characters and subjects, etc. Chapter IV analyzes the legal issues of container demurrage specifically, focuses on the reasonableness of the charging rules and the billing rate of the demurrage, and devises a detailed framework for establishing a limited liability system for the demurrage restitution, which I hope can induce the scholars to come forward with valuable fruits.