Commercial And Contractual Aspects of Shipping - Assignment Example

Commercial And Contractual Aspects of Shipping 1. The Bill of Lading signifies that any vessel may run through a regular route and it may also pick up any cargo along its route, and may reach any series of destination; however on the conditionality that the voyage has been pre-booked and terms of voyage have been decided upon. Thus, in terms of the contract of a sale, the entire journey will have to be pre-booked and the document containing the terms and conditions would have to be signed beforehand between the shipper and the carrier. 2. The rules governing the carriage of goods by water must be invoked contractually and legislatively. This implies that contracting parties are bound to incorporate the most updated versions of legislations and both parties must comply by the rules of the contract. 3. Part II of the GENCON specifies that the owners and the managers would only be responsible for loss of good owing to due diligence on their part, while in any other situation, the owners won`t be responsible for the loss. In the given case, the vessel was stranded on a reef and applying the principles of GENCON, the owner is playing his part by saving the vessel by jettison of a cargo, thus the master of the vessel or the goods won`t be able to claim responsibility. In such a scenario, it is best if the vessel is insured, otherwise the master would have to incur loss. 4. Prior to approving a Bill of lading a few things must be considered; The Bill of Lading Form i.e. ensuring that no alternative type of form has been incorporate without prior knowledge of the chatterers C/P Incorporation i.e. ensuring that the terms and conditions have been incorporated properly, and any additional clause is dated accurately Clause Paramount i.e in case the general paramount needs to be replaced with the US clause, general clause must be stricken and properly mentioned in the bill Incorporation of the York Antwerp Rules i.e. the bill must be amended to show that the general average rules are applied and York Antwerp dates are incorporated The Hamburg Rules i.e. these rules must not be incorporated and it must be ensured that correct law is applied. 5. The Ship-owner may obtain insurance by adding a ‘collision’ clause to the general insurance policy, and thus, according to the recent legislation around 75% of the collision liability may be covered by insurance. This clause is entitled to cover only the machinery losses, however, losses from running down losses or losses from excess collision would have to be borne by the ship-owners themselves. 6. The contract of carriage based on Voyage Charter Party is different from that based on the Bill of Lading. In the former, both parties are negotiating at an equal level field and thus, the terms are agreed upon mutually between both parties. GENCON is usually used, which has two parts. Part I of the form contains details of the charter, which are negotiable. Part II contains standard conditions regarding how the sale would be handles, which is non-amendable but be incorporate clauses in special cases. In contrast, the bill of Lading is tilted more on the favor of the seller since the document is carved out by the carrier which implies that the ocean carrier is at the winning end. Also, unlike the Voyage Charter, this bill contains a special ‘Paramount and Jurisdiction clause’ where seller isn`t given any choice to make amends. Furthermore, other amendments may be added but won`t be applicable if they defy general legislations. 7. The Bill of Lading would serve as a Document of Title when there would be issues regarding ownership of the vessel, for instance, if there are concerns with pirates seizing the vessels or any other party claiming ownership over, it would serve as a Document of Title. However, the Bill would serve as a receipt of goods if there is an issue between the master of the vessel and the seller regarding the the state of goods, sales policies or the conditions of the goods at the time of delivery, it would act as a receipt for the goods. For instance, if the quantity of goods is to be confirmed between two parties at the time of arrival, the Bill would act as a receipt of goods. However, the Bill would act as a contract of carriage when the parties would have to decide that who would incur the losses if there is any damage to the property on the vessel. For instance, if the vessel undergoes collision and there is damage to the vessel, the Bill of lading would act as contract of carriage. 8. The terms of the contract may be changed after the agreement in special cases, if both parties feel the need to make amendments. However, in case new legislations are passed which may directly affect the terms of the contract, it is necessary to make relevant changes to the contract. (The Evolving Law and Practice of Voyage Charterparties 101) 9. When any kind of damage is made to the stevedores under the liner contract, the limits of liability to third parties are contained in the ‘Himalaya Clause’. The clause states that if a stevedoring company is hired and the company causes damage to the goods, both the company as well as the carrier will make an attempt to shield themselves from the liability. I.e. Clause 19 states that these stevedores are party to the agreement and thus limits are imposed on them as well. 10. The effect of including value of cargo can be quite significant. By declaring the value of the goods of the cargo, both the shipper and the carrier would be liable to damage for goods exceeding 666.67 units of account for each package according to the article IV of Hague-Visby rules. Thus, the liability would impose responsibility on both parties to take care of the good while handling them. Works Cited: The Evolving Law and Practice of Voyage Charterparties. London: Informa, 2009. Print. Read More