Research On The Limited Network System Of The Rotterdam Rules

On December11,2008, after a long time waiting, The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by sea (Also known as The Rotterdam Rules) has finally passed on the63rd conference of the United Nations. The reason why the UNCITRAL decided to formulate this convention is on one hand to unify the international maritime legislation. Before the Rotterdam Rules, there are three main current international maritime laws, as well as the existence of the national maritime legislation. The disunity of international transport laws can hinder the free flow of international goods and increase the transaction cost, it is bad for the development of international trade and shipping business. On the other hand is to formulate a law that adapts the development. The diversity of international trade and shipping business, the widespread use of container transportation, the rise of e-commerce and the popularization of the "door to door" transportation, all of which had made the international transportation of goods changed greatly. Hence, the Rotterdam rules arose at the historic moment. The convention improved relevant maritime laws concerning the international transport of goods in many ways, such as expanded the carrier’s liability period, added the chapter of electronic transport records and built a new carrier’s liability system, etc.The provision of article26of the convention embodies a new form of the carrier’s liability-the limited network system. In this thesis, by analyzing this form of carrier’s liability of the Rotterdam Rules and comparing with China’s maritime law, the author will point out the advantages and disadvantages of the limited network system of Rotterdam rules and the lack of related laws in our country, thus put forward some suggestions to consummate our country’s legislation on carrier’s form of liability.The full thesis is divided into introduction, text and epilogue. Among them the body part is divided into four chapters.The first chapter gives a detailed information about legal provision and application of limited network system. Article26is applicable to the "localized damage", that is, during the whole "door to door" carrier’s responsibility period, the damage of goods must happens solely before their loading onto the ship or solely after their discharge from the ship. In addition, article26also restricts the application of international convention which is maybe preferentially used.The second chapter is the interpretation about some controversies which occurred during the process of legislation of article26.The third chapter is a detailed analysis about the limited network system. If one wants to know the carrier liability form, one must first make it clear that how many types are there, for the limited network system is an evolution of those types. Therefore, on the basis of the analysis of several basic types of carrier’s liability, this part fully parses the limited network system.The last chapter first discusses the positive significance of article26, and then compares with our country’s maritime legislation, states briefly about the deficiency and put forward some suggestions to consummate our country’s legislation on carrier’s form of liability.Though the Rotterdam Rules has not been put into practice, it is still one of the important legislations on International carriage of goods by sea and has a positive significance on China’s maritime legislation and practice.