Carriage of Goods by Sea

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• be an independent and self-critical learner, managing your own requirements for continuing professional development;
• identify relevant bibliography;
• apply time management;
• deploy legal arguments in writing.
• competently undertake research tasks with minimum guidance using the full range of learning resources;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• draft legal advice based upon such problems;
• apply commercial law principles, with appropriate legal authorities, in the solution of complex practical problems;
• display clarity and objectivity in written discussion.
• appraise and criticise existing debates in U.K. and international maritime law, using appropriate legal research skills;
• describe and assess existing areas of debate about what the law is and what it ought to be, both in the U.K. and internationally;
• identify and explain the main commercial, insurance and political policies and values underpinning the law relating to carriage of goods by sea;
• analyse relevant legal materials, including international conventions, statutes, case law and standard form maritime contracts;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the main principles which govern the obligations arising under bills of lading including: - the issue of a bill of lading and its statements - incorporation of charterparty terms - identifying the parties to the contract - title to sue - application of the international carriage conventions - the liability regime under the Hague, Hague-Visby, Hamburg and Rotterdam Rules.
• the main principles which govern the contractual obligations arising under charterparties and when they terminate including: - seaworthiness - deviation - duty to nominate a safe port - frustration - express cancellation clauses - legitimate last voyage - remedies for late or non payment of hire under time charterparties, offhire and set off - freight and allocation of risk for delays during loading and discharge under voyage charterparties;

1 Introduction and Commercial background

2 Basic implied obligations in carriage of goods by sea:

• Seaworthiness
• Deviation
• Safe ports
• Frustration

3 Cancellation of charterparty

4 Time Charters

• The description of the ship
• The period of the charterparty: underlap and overlap
• Off hire
• Hire and withdrawal

5 Remedies for breach of charterparty

6 Voyage charters

• Freight
• The commencement of laytime
• The calculation of laytime and demurrage
• The distinction between demurrage and damages for detention
• Liens for freight, demurrage and damages for detention and cesser clauses

7 Introduction to bills of lading, the commercial background and their functions

8 Bill of Lading functions: receipt

• Typical bill of lading clauses:
• Weight and quantity
• Condition

9 Bill of Lading functions: Terms of contract

10 Bill of Lading functions: Document of title

11 Hague and Hague-Visby Rules: Liability scheme

12 Hague and Hague-Visby Rules: Application

13 Typical bill of lading clauses:

• Limitation of liability
• Time Bars

14 Typical bill of lading clauses:

• Himalaya
• Freight
• Lien

15 Hamburg Rules 1978 and Rotterdam Rules 2009

16 Through and combined transport

17 Waybills

18 Charterparty bills

• Identity of parties
• Identity of terms

19 Charterers' orders

You will be provided with detailed reading lists, containing references to textbooks, cases, Conventions, statutes and journal articles. There will also be problem questions to be used for discussion in class. You will also be provided with a volume of standard form carriage contracts, supplementing those in the recommended textbook by John Wilson, so that you can relate the law to current commercial practice.

The module will be taught by weekly lectures. You will be expected to prepare the written reading sheets in advance. This preparation will require you to read and assimilate a considerable amount of material. In particular, you will be expected to understand legal principles deriving from international Conventions, statutes, case law, journal articles and standard form contracts. This will develop your ability to read cases, to get quickly to the important subject matter, to spot issues which are important but not decided, to extract principles, and to use and apply those principles in practical case studies. Your study of standard form contracts used internationally will expose you to the operation of these contracts almost as quasi-codes of law. You will consider not only what the law is, but what it ought to be.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Essay

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback: Feedback will be through a feedback sheet and comments written on formative work in a 3000 word essay and orally in one lecture.
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.