Analysis Of The Legal Nature Of The International Freight Forwarding Enterprise Business

In this dissertation, in order to guide the business running of the forwarding companies, the writer is trying to ascertain the legal natures of the various businesses of international forwarding companies and as well the relevant legal liabilities which the companies should take, by analyzing the provisions on the entrusting and agency and NVOCC in Chinese laws and Regulations.In all the scopes of the forwarding business, there are mainly two kinds of business, one is the forwarding business, and one is the NVOCC business. These two business kinds may concern about the relationship between the third parties. But when acting towards the third party, the some of the forwarding companies are not able to master the regulations in respect of the entrusting and the agency to guide their business activities, which may make them to take the liabilities of the contract at last, instead of being free from any liabilities of the contract as the agent of the principal. The legal nature of the forwarding business depends on the entrusting contract between the principal and the forwarding company. In the agency relationship, the PRC contract law provides that the agent may act in his own name, as well when the agency may not be disclosed the principal is entitled to take part in the contract and the third party is entitled to have the right of choice to whom he should ask for compensation. But to all these regulations, the writer holds the view that they are different from the agency regulated by the common law system. In this dissertation, it is analyzed about the rules of the agency in British law and in the laws of the United States, and the different liabilities in these two nations' laws. No matter comparing with the British law or the laws of the United States, our agency relationship ruled by the contract law is not the same with; the liabilities of which are not the same, either. But the contract law does not give clear explanation to some of its contents, which may leads to the misunderstanding of the regulations. Thus, the writer relies on the general rules of agency stipulated by the civil law, conclude that the stipulations of the contract law is complementary to the rules of the agency in the principal's name, although the agent may act in his own name, but the agency should be disclosed fully to the third party if the principal is expected to take the full liabilities of the contract. The disclosure of the agency in the way like "as the agent only", instead of the full agency relationship including the name of the principal and the scope of the rights of the agent, may not make the agent being free from the liabilities. Accordingly, only should the forwarding company disclose full agency relationship to the third parties when acting as the agent of the principal to enter into contract with the third party, the party to the contract should be the principal himself. If the agency relationship is not fully disclosed to the third party, it should be regarded that the agency is unknown to the third party. In this circumstance, if the forwarding company may not be able to perform the contract because of the principal, it may disclose the principal immediately to third party for the third party to choose the one that should take the liabilities. Or, when the third party may not be able to perform the contract, the principal may also be able to take part in the contract upon advice of its agent to askthe third party to take liabilities of breaching the contract. The forwarding company should take the responsibility to inform the relevant party in these circumstances. In the NVOCC business, the forwarding company may act in two roles, to the actual consignor, he is the carrier of the goods; but to the actual carrier, he is the shipper of the goods. In these two legal relationships, the forwarding company should take the full responsibilities of the contract to its full performance. If the forwarding company acts as the NVOCC without permission and license issued by the government, the contract entered with the ship...