Limitation Of Actions In The Water Carriage Of Goods By The Legal System

The study object of this paper is the limitation period of the waterway cargo transportation legal system. Waterway cargo transportation refers to cargo transportation by sea and inland waterway cargo transportation. Combining with comprehensive domestic cases study, this paper focuses on "International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of lading", "Protocol to Amend the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of lading", "United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea", "United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea", "Budapest Convention on the Contract for the Carriage of Goods by Inland Waterways" and "Maritime Code of the People's Republic of China" to discuss cargo transportation related limitation period issues.This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter systematically analyzes the basic theory of civil limitation period as a whole. Starting from the points of basic civil law principles, it analyzes the concept, function, duration, beginning, suspension and the agreed extension of limitation period for civil cases generally to pave the way for the following discussion. The chapter is divided into five sections to discuss the above mentioned five aspects and echo to the following chapters and form a complete structure. This arrangement is designed to make the paper both depth in theory and practical in the analyze of the limitation period of the waterway cargo transportation legal system.The discussion of waterway transportation time period is compounded of two parts, of which the first discuss limitation period of transportation by sea and the second part discuss limitation period of transportation by inland waterways, including inland waterway way transportation legal system of China and international inland waterways transportation legal system. The first part includes Chapter Two to Chapter Four. Chapter Two analyzes the duration and beginning of limitation period for cargo transportation by sea in two levels:the international conventions and the domestic laws and regulations of China. Chapter Three discusses suspension and Chapter Four discusses the agreed extension, also in two levels. Chapter Six focuses on three special and separate problems:the limitation period applicable when the carrier suits the consignee, the limitation period applicable for the third party to transportation contract, and the relation between limitation period for litigation and time bar for execution of judges.The purpose of this paper is to provide practical suggestions to improve the legal system of limitation period for waterway cargo transportation of China on the basis of detail analyze of international conventions and domestic laws and regulations.