Issues on the Identification of B/L Carrier: Judicial Practice, Theories and the Proposed Revision on China’s Maritime Law Shouzhi An 1* , Kun Xu

Abstract

The identification of the carrier is relevant to the determination of the subject of rights and the subject of li - abilities in the contract of carriage of goods by sea. This paper summarizes the methods of the identification of carrier from the statistics and classification of related cases. There are two theoretical issues with these identification methods. Firstly, whether the identification of carrier can be carried out only in accordance with the definition of carrier under Article 42 (1) of the Chinese Maritime Law? Secondly, what is the legal basis behind the presumption of carrier and the employer liability under the method of the origin of right of issuance of B/L? This paper views that it is logically inconsistent to identify the carrier soly relying on the definition of carrier under Article 42 (1); the carrier presumption method should only be adopted where the carrier cannot be identified through the method of interpreting the B/L and other special methods, it is also necessary to limit the times of presumption and the extension of the burden of proof for rebuttal of the presumed carrier.