A Study On The Ship's Seaworthiness Obligation Of The Maritime Carrier Under CEMAC Law

Maritime law has evolved considerably due to the important place that maritime transport occupies in international trade today.Maritime transport represents 90%of world economic exchanges.Therefore,the maritime carrier's obligation law of goods by sea is the set of rules which govern the proper shipment of goods by sea.These measures are,for the most part,provided for by international conventions,which are incorporated into the legal ordering of States.Each state can,however,develop its legislation.As the States of French-speaking Africa,a community decision of the Council of Heads of State of Central Africa is subject to the option of a maritime code by act No.6/94-UDEAC-594-CE-30,December 22,1994,which by its article 406 imposed on the carrier the obligations for a good shipment but under the provisions of The Hague Rules and that of the Hamburg Rules.For this,the legislator thought of the interests of shippers,and this leads him to the revision of the old code by Regulation No.08/12-UDEAC-088-CM-23 signed on July 22,2012,provided much more specifies in his art.525 of the carrier's obligations.Thus,the emphasis was placed on the obligation of the carrier as a means of minimizing the rights of the carrier based on its obligations to make the ship seaworthy not only before the start of the voyage,but also to keep the ship seaworthy during the whole expedition,in this way,preventing the recurrent insecurity plaguing the maritime transport sector.This state of affairs makes it possible to avoid the accidents which are more and more repeated in maritime transport by the non-navigability of the ship to face the risks of the sea.Negligent controls,which he often undergoes and sometimes even unsure of the qualification of his crew.In this case figure,the carrier who will fail to fulfill one of his obligations mentioned in art.547 of the revised 2012 code will be held responsible for the receipt of the goods until delivery as mentioned in art.546 al.1 of the CEMAC marine goods code.The carrier may attempt to free himself from his responsibility by proving in excepted cases to exonerate himself until the recipient of the cargo proves that he has not exercised due diligence.The objective of this revision was to approximate Community maritime law to that of the Rotterdam Convention,which has given the possibility to each of the contracting parties to marit ime transport to prove that they are either exempt(carrier)or compensated for the damage suffered by cargo(the shipper).This revision reflects a real desire to standardize the international obligations of contractors,but those of the carrier will be the subject of this study.