Analysis Of The Legal Liability Of The Carrier "Rotterdam Rules.

Hague Rules, Hague-Visby Rules, Hamburg Rules take effect together inInternational Marine Transport field in the20th century. Different international shippingtreaties, different domestic maritime laws and different applicable laws selected byshipper and carrier generate lots of new problems in carriage of goods by sea andinternational trade field. In order to solve the chaos caused by Non-uniform rules,Rotterdam Rules was passed on December2008with continuous efforts of CMI andinternational community. Rotterdam Rules makes various changes to traditionalmaritime transportation conventions, and the carrier’s liability system is one of corecontents. Rotterdam Rules makes the carrier taking more responsibility in many aspectsconcerning basis of liability, excluded perils, principal obligation and so forth. Thesechanges indirectly reflect the requests of current international shipping practice and thevalue priorities of maritime legislation.This thesis attempts to discuss the impact on maritime practice of China probablymade by Rotterdam Rules’ new changes about the liability of carrier and thegovernment attitude towards Rotterdam Rules through comparative analyzing5aspectscontents of the carrier’s liability system between Rotterdam Rules and traditional threemaritime conventions. The body of this research can be divided into three chapters:Chapter one gives a brief introduction of historical background of Rotterdam Rulesmaking. This chapter consists of two parts: the first part, take the time as a clue,introduces the evolution of international maritime conventions; the second part analysesthree push factors of convention making including chaotic application of maritime law,the latest requirement of international shipping and innovation of transportation modesby sea.Chapter two includes three parts. The first part, starting from5aspects involvingliability subject, basis of liability, period of responsibility, excluded perils and principalobligations, concretely analyzed Rotterdam Rules’ new changes about the carrier’sliability system comparing traditional maritime rules. The second part summarizes thatthe carriers would take more responsibilities. The last part analyze that these newchanges may have some negative influences on China’s shipping market.Based on the comprehensive evaluation of the challenges Rotterdam Rules facenow, chapter three briefly states our government and domestic scholars’ attitudestowards Rotterdam Rules and proposes China to respond actively, for instance,improving domestic maritime law on the basis of researching new convention’s relatedprovisions, handling the interest conflicts from strong shipping country more carefullyunder new convention’s adjustments.