The Carrier's Liability for Delay : A Comparative Analysis of Rotterdam Rules, Related International Conventions and Some Jurisdictions

Abstract

The thesis focuses on carrier's liability for delay in United Nations Convention of Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea, as known as the Rotterdam Rules, in comparison with other related international conventions and different jurisdictions. The carrier's liability for delay is not regulated under Hague-Visby Rules as a reflection of the date it was constituted. This issue was resulted with different interpretations. The definition of delay was made under Hamburg Rules, also the losses caused from carrier's liability for delay is recoverable. When it comes to English Law, the recoverability of the losses caused from delay is a matter of remoteness-foreseeability. The carrier's liability for delay is regulated under Norwegian and Turkish law expressly. Also In Rotterdam Rules carrier's liability for delay expressly regulated, but it is recoverable under the Convention as long as the time of delivery was decided in the contract of carriage. As the previous conventions, Rotterdam Rules does not give an answer how the economic losses will be recoverable. Rotterdam Rules deals with liability for delay expressly, however there are some gaps, which seems like they are left to possible practices in the future. In the beginning, the rooting concepts of maritime carriage is introduced and the outline of main body is indicated. In Chapter 2, the related international conventions are examined, the Hague-Visby Rules and Hamburg Rules, in Chapter 3 the current state of some jurisdictions, which are English, Norwegian and Turkish law, is examined. Later, in Chapter 4, the Rotterdam Rules are studied. While going through the different liability regimes, related topics such as period of responsibility, allocation of burden of proof, exclusions and limitations for liability are examined.