Empirical Study On Container Demurrage In International Maritime Transport

With the development of shipping industry,container transportation has been paid more and more attention by shipping market because of its advantages of high efficiency,high quality,high density and standardization and so on,but the frequent container demurrage disputes follow.The dispute over container demurrage mainly arises from the shipping practice of container liner transportation.Container demurrage refers to the overdue usage fee of containers after the carrier arrives at the destination port,because of reasons of shipper and consignee or other reasons,the goods contained in containers are not picked up for a long time or the consignee fails to return the containers as agreed.The legal issues involved in container disputes are complex.However,due to the blank of China's law in the field of container demurrage,there are many problems in container demurrage disputes,such as the legality of collecting container demurrage,the determination of proper plaintiff and defendant in container demurrage disputes,and the determination of the final compensation amount of container demurrage.These problems are the source of endless disputes between the parties in the dispute of container demurrage and continuous doubts in the academic circle.At the same time,the existence of these problems will undoubtedly increase the difficulty for the Chinese courts to hear the container demurrage disputes.This paper is an empirical study on the disputes over container demurrage in China.In view of the fact that China's Maritime Law does not clearly stipulate the "container demurrage" or "container overdue usage fee",this paper mainly makes an empirical study on the problem of container demurrage in international maritime transportation through the collection and analysis of the relevant cases of container demurrage in China.Through the interpretation of several cases related to the container demurrage disputes in China,this paper analyzes the core focus issues of container demurrage disputes in the judicial practice of China,and the handling methods of various courts for these focus issues in different periods.The purpose of this paper is to find legal basis for carriers to request container demurrage,determine the responsible subject of container demurrage disputes under different circumstances,and discuss the carrier's derogation obligation and the maximum standard of container demurrage amount,through collecting and analyzing relevant cases of container demurrage disputes.This article is divided into four parts.The first one is the analysis of the legal basis of carrier's claim of container demurrage.By sorting out and summing up the laws applicable to the confirmation of the carrier's rights in the relevant cases of container demurrage dispute in our country,this paper analyzes and discusses the application of the law,so as to provide the legitimate basis for the carrier's right to claim the container demurrage.The second part is the discussion on the determination of the eligible subject of the container demurrage dispute.On the basis of some typical cases,this part mainly discusses the qualification of plaintiff subject between the NVOCC and the actual carrier,as well as the related problems in determining the consignee and shipper as the subject of liability.The third part is the discussion on the determination of the amount of compensation for container demurrage.This part includes a discussion on the validity of the carrier's unilateral standard for the calculation of container demurrage,and the limitation of full compensation for container demurrage.The author hopes to make an in-depth discussion on the above issues based on the analysis of the relevant container demurrage dispute cases in China,and put forward the author's relevant opinions and suggestions accordingly,so as to make some contributions to the legislation and judicial practice of container demurrage in China.