7160MAR International Trade and Global Transport Systems Assignment Sample
Here’s the best sample of 7160MAR International Trade and Global Transport Systems Assignment.
1. Introduction
In order to trade internationally by sea, every country or state needs to work under a particular set of rules that control some aspects of international trade. Keeping this fact in mind, the Hague-Visby Rules have been introduced in England by the “Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1924” by subsequently updating and bringing into force in 1971. Before applying the Hague-Visby Rules, the government of the United Kingdom has encountered that parties of affreightment who signed legal contracts possess the possibility of using a strong bargaining position. In order to bind the bargaining power of the agreement parties, the government of the United Kingdom has introduced “Hague-Visby Rules” into order with the help of “Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971”. Based on this phenomenon, this report will discuss the issues of that particular rule and the other international conventions that have been used by the UK as a remedy of the Hague-Visby Rules. In addition, the report sheds light on the latest international conventions such as Hamburg Rules 1978 and Rotterdam Rules 2008 that remedied the outdated Hague Visby Rules.
2. International conventions to regulates good carriage by sea
2.1 Brief on Hague-Visby Rules
Before the introduction of Hague-Visby rules of the international trade regulations of the United Kingdom, the contractors were free to sign any legal contract. As per the view of Sinemet al. (2020), at that time the contractors can negotiate the contractual rules as per their choice. Eventually, it has been observed by the authority that the parties have started applying their power of strong bargaining position to have the wide-reaching exclusions of liability of marine trade. Based on that vulnerable situation, in order to ensure a fairer system, a particular set of codified rules have been introduced by the government of the United Kingdom. Along with the obligations and rights of parties, the maximum executions of liabilities have been mentioned in the rules as well. The additional UK provision of Hague-Visby Rule applied CoGSA 1971. Implementation of 1C permits the bill of lading live animals and deck cargo. On the other hand, article III 4 declares “bill of lading” which focus on the prima facie evidence. The bill has been upgraded associated with “conclusive evidence of receipt”. The rules have been applied for providing a seaworthy ship, for issuing th “bill of lading” and take care of good properly. The Art VI of “Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA) 1971” has included a statement where it has been said that in case of particular goods, in any terms the shipper and the carrier can sign a contract (Girvin, 2019).
2.1.1 Contracts covered by the rule
It has been stated in Article I (b) that these particular set of regulations are felicitous for “only to contracts of carriage covered by a bill of lading or any similar document of title in so far as such document relates to the carriage of goods by sea”. The particular statement actively demonstrates that the rules must be applied to the order bills and straight bills in relation to lading that is made out to a beneficiary (Yilmaz, 2021). On the other hand, it has been stated through these rules that the straits bills also have not been considered as the negotiable document under the title. In order to sum up all that has been stated previously, it can be stated that the rules of the contract will be applicable during issuing the bill related to lading in a state of contracting demonstrated in Art X.
2.1.2 Regulations remedied the outdated Hague-Visby Rules”
According to “the Hague-Visby rules”, Carrier has been defined as the person or owner who has entered into a “contract of carriage” with a supplier underpinned by the regulations of a bill related to lading. In Art, I (a), the definition of Goods has included merchandise, wares, articles and goods of any kind but live animals and cargo (Choi, 2019). The Deck Cargo has been defined as the cargoes which are, as per the statement of contract, stated to be carried on deck. In addition, Ships have been demonstrated as any vessel that is used to carry any goods. Along with these demonstrations and the definition of different attributes of the marine trade, the Act of “Carriage of Goods by Sea” has also included the situations for which rules will be not applicable. The Hague-Visby rule have been remedied and updated in Brussels in 1924. The remedied version has given better opportunities and it increased the bargaining power of the cargo owner or the shipper. It is imposed that there are more liabilities for the common carrier of the shippers.
2.1.3 Carrier’s obligations and limitations of liability
Article III (1) has determined that a carrier needs to ensure with the persistent and careful effort that the ship is seaworthy and the holds are fit enough to receive goods. Along with that it has been stated in this particular obligation of the carrier that the transporter will not be claimed as the responsible one for the defects which will be developed at the time of voyage (Solvang, 2020). Along with this, if the carrier finds the ship as not seaworthy, this phenomenon will lead to a trade loss.
Art III (2) has demonstrated that “the carrier shall properly and carefully load, handle, stow, carry, keep, care for and discharge the goods delivered”. The obligation included in “care of cargo” is simultaneous and “runs from commencement of loading to the completion of discharge”.
In addition, it has been stated in these sets of rules that in case of cargo damage, the carriers can limit their liability for protecting themselves from the risks regarding goods that have a high value. Art IV (5) has limited the liability of carriers within £100 gold value (Sudarwanto and Purwosutedjo2018). Along with this, “the monetary unit of limitation (special drawing right) is defined by the International Monetary Fund as 666.67 units of account per package”.
2.2 Identified issues of Hague-Visby Rules
Being a reformed version of previously used rules of Hague, “the Hague-Visby Rules” still costs some of the issues which are considered as the fault of these sets of rules. The identified issues of these rules have been demonstrated in the below section:
2.2.1 Carrier period of responsibility
In accordance with the international business theory, the carriage of good by sea governs the duties and rights of carriers, shippers and consignees for marine cargo. As per the theory, the carrier takes the responsibility of the goods and return of payments. The regulations of Hague-Visby rules have been considered as outdated ones as the rules have failed to demonstrate the exact number of responsibilities of carriers. In Art VI, it has been stated in the rules that the loading, custody, storage and care of goods fall under the liabilities or responsibilities of the carrier. In this regard, it can be stated that while undertaking the voyage the majority of the responsibilities have been burdened over the shoulders of carriers where the other parties take equal part in the sea trade. As argued by Yu and Chang (2018), it can be stated that carriers cannot be considered chargeable due to any damages or loss that occurred prior to or after the voyage. Therefore, based on the H-O theory of trade, the responsibilities of the carriers were required to have some limitations to have better relationships between parties.
2.2.2 Container transport with low compatibility
In the sets of the rules of Hague and Visby, a lack of compatibility with container transport has been identified, as per the view of; the cost of transportation must be set on the basis of the limited number of containers and the thing that is contained within the containers. On the contrary, the Hague-Visby Rules have remained silent in the particular case of setting the benchmark of the number of containers that can be loaded on cargo and the cost per container (Ziakas, 2018). In accordance with the absolute cost advantage theory, as the majority of responsibility lies on the carrier, the cost needs to be fixed per container in order to avoid an unbiased pricing strategy of marine trade (Um and Kim, 2019). It has helped to point out that the cost will not be necessarily only based on the numbers of the container or the weightage but the contained material as well.
2.2.3 Issues in proper applications of the rules
As it has been mentioned in the Articles of the COGS Act, the rules will be applicable for only the contractual bills of lading. It has been stated in the act that in the case of particular goods, the rules will be inapplicable and the parties of such contracts are allowed to sign under any negotiated statements. This particular rule has been considered as one of the reasons for the failure of the Hague-Visby Rules. It can be said that UK courts must adopt a purposive approach even when the ordinary meaning of the words used is distorted. The rules need to be made in such a way that can be beneficial for both the parties and can be applied for the majority of the contractual statements (Vlados, 2018). The major issues in the application of the rule are that it contents the “litany of exculpatory clauses”. It is commonly perceived by the cargo owner or the shipper which is serving the interest under “nautical fault exception”. Factors condition and demand conditions for both the parties are needed to be easily applicable in a beneficial manner for both the parties. The argumentative statement of Renet al. (2021), has stated that the technical system included in clause paramount can be the reason for creating loopholes using which the parties can remove the contract where the bill is titled as government law. On the other hand, supported by the statement of Antwi-Agyeiet al. (2018), it can be proposed that these rules cannot be developed by aligning the foreign laws of the country of the United Kingdom.
2.2.4 Carriers liability has maximum limitations
As it has been stated in Hague-Visby rules that in connection to goods or services, weather carrier or ship, both cannot be liable as the major limitations have been put in carrier liability. These statements were not being valid in the time when these particular rules have been in practice. “Decisions which conflict with the Supreme Court decisions must be disregarded”. As per the view of Girvin (2019), by the time being this rule underpinned by the COGSA 1971, the cost per container has been increased in order to match the economic status of the various countries. Above all, as the marine trade laws have started to be considered as an integral part of the foreign laws of the countries, the practice of the UK has become outdated at that moment.
2.3 The international convention that remedied the outdated Hague-Visby Rules
In order to manage the issues regarding “litany of exculpatory clauses” in the “Hague-Visby Rules” in the marine trade, the government of the United Kingdom has started practicing the Rotterdam Rules. Being focused on the rules of Hague, Hamburg, the Rotterdam Rules have been developed with an intention of establishing a modern and uniform legal regime. These particular rules have allowed the government of the United Kingdom to govern over the obligations and legal rights of merchant, carrier, and the other consignees “under a contract of the door to door carriage” including international sea log (Bazghadze, 2021). The convention of the UK regarding “Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea” has been considered as the Rotterdam Rules that has offered a universal regime which is properly balanced, to the carriers and shippers and carriers.
Additionally, conventions regarding “unit of account provision and provisions for the adjustment of the limit of liability in international transport and liability” were adopted by the government of the United Kingdom in the year 1982 (Poliaket al. 2019). These conventions have been adopted for designating the Drawing Rights that are special by providing limitations of liability. In 1991, the convention of “Liability of Operators of Transport Terminals in International Trade” helped the government of the UK to govern the liabilities of transport terminals and operators.
3. Conclusion
The present report has included in-depth research “Hague-Visby Rules” that came to practice in 1971with the help of the Carriage of Goods by Sea. It has been encountered during the demonstration of the rules that these contemporary rules of international marine trade have several issues. Considering these issues, these sets of rules have become outdated by the time the government of the United Kingdom has started the practice of Hague-Visby Rules. For example, in 2008, the government of the UK has developed a convention of Rotterdam rules that enabled the UK government to manage trade relations with other foreign countries in an effective manner. The other conventions have also helped the government of the UK to manage the faulty situation caused by practising Hague-Visby rules in the international marine trade.
In the Rotterdam Rules 2008 act, the multimodal transportation has been changed a bit. The contracts and the documentation process have been changed in this act. On the contrary to the Hamburg Rules 1978, the issuance of the bill of lading in the case of transportation has been changed and disregarded.
In the case of containerization, the development and the deploy processers has been changed a bit. The process and steps of the deployment along with the documentation and billing has been changed. On the contrary to the previous law, the technicalities and the implementation processes have been changed.
In the case of e-documentation, the processes and techniques have been changed. In the previous law, the documentation process was based on the pen and paper and this created issues in the different section. In the revised law, the e-documentation and online documentation has been introduced.
In the revised law, the door-to-door transportation has been more efficient and the process of billing and documentation has been smoother than before. In this law, the doorstep transportation has been introduced for better customer satisfaction.
In the Rotterdam Rules 2008, 2 major changes are in the process of documentation and the shipping process. In this law, the e-documentation has been introduced and door-to-door shipping has been focused.
Reference list
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