• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.70
• /
• pp.39-65
• /
• 2016

On 2013 the English court delivered a decision that the payment obligation under time charter party is a condition. According to this judgement, The Astra, a breach of the obligation to pay hire on time entitles the owner both to withdraw the ship and sue the charterers for damages for the difference between the contract and market rate for the remainder of the contracted period. On 2015, however, the English court stood at the other side. In Spar Shipping, the court confirmed that the obligation to pay hire is not a condition of the contract but an "innominate term" - from the charterers' breach ship owners can exercise their contractual right to withdraw, but owners' right to sue for damages depends on whether the charterers have deprived the owners of the substantial benefit of the contract, or shown an intention to do so. This article aims to compare both decisions over the points that (1) the importance of on-time payment under a time charter party, (2) as a critical and main question in this article, whether the mattered payment clause is a condition or innominate term, (3) whether the on-time payment clause is merely a penalty or a reasonable liquidated damage. Based on various reasons, I am on a position that the payment of hire is not a condition but an innominate term. Default in punctual payment by a charterer, in the absent of clear contractual agreement, needs to be decided further whether that breach removes the substantial benefit of the contract from the owners.

• The Journal of shipping and logistics
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.583-613
• /
• 2018

This study analyse the safe port warranty undertaking for shipowner of time charterer with the Ocean Victory Case. Litigation ensued between those in the charterparty chain. When the hull insurer, Gard, took an assignment of the rights of the vessel's owners and demise charterers in a claim against the time charterers that the vessel had been ordered by them to an unsafe port in breach of the charter. Although the claim succeeded, the Court of Appeal overturned the decision. The Supreme Court delivered its judgment on May 10, 2017, dealing with three important issues, safe port, joint insurance, and limitation of liability. Especially on the safe port issue, the court held that the port was not unsafe within the meaning of the safe port undertaking so the charterers were not in breach of it. The conditions in the port amounted to an abnormal occurrence as that expression is understood.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.153-172
• /
• 2018

In solving international commercial disputes, arbitration has a unique advantage. Therefore, when most parties sign a charter party, they contain arbitration clauses. Whether the arbitration clause in the charter party can be effectively incorporated into the bill of lading and bind to the third party-bill holder becomes an important issue. Based on the problem above, this paper compares the arbitration system between Korea and China, and discusses the composition of the Chinese Maritime Court and the Chinese court's adjudication of arbitration for foreign countries, which are recognized and enforced in China. What is most important in this study is observing the Chinese case from the beginning of 2000 to the present in order to rule whether the Chinese court can effectively incorporate the arbitration clause in the charter party into the bill of lading, as well as whether it constitutes an effective binding force for third parties and changes in standard of recognition. Finally, through comparative analysis, the study concludes that in China, the arbitration clause in the charter party can be effectively incorporated into the bill of lading, and that the conditions for the third parties can be effectively restrained. There must be several points to be noted when recording the bill of lading. This would then help reduce the legal risks and promote the sustainable development of international transactions.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.27-50
• /
• 2018

This study focuses on the judgement of Seoul High Court' regarding the formation and performance of contracts applying the CISG. The purpose of this study is to provide legal understanding to contracting parties involved in contract for the international sale of goods that can be considered in raising the understanding of the CISG within the scope of the subject. This study aimed at the legal validity of judgments, the defects in reason for judgments and legal standards that could be established. The main contribution of this study is summarizing the facts of judgments and arguments of the parties and furthermore, in accordance with the order, the judgment order of the court and the decision criteria of the application law, the CISG articles comment and interpretation on the formation of the contract, legal bases of fundamental breach of contract, termination of contract, concurrent fulfillment and other supplementary matters and so on.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.35-60
• /
• 2017

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts. Parties often seek to resolve disputes through arbitration because of a number of perceived potential advantages over judicial proceedings: Arbitration is generally faster and more inexpensive (cheaper) than litigation in court. The Republic of Korea enacted the "Arbitration Industry Promotion Act" to develop arbitration. This law provides for the establishment and operation of arbitration institutions, training of arbitration experts, and support of arbitration studies and international exchanges. Effective operation of an arbitration institution has an important influence on the development of arbitration. Neutral and good arbitration experts improve the authority of arbitration. The academic study of arbitration theoretically develops the arbitration procedure. In addition, this paper referred to some additional factors that South Korea should have in order to become an attractive place of arbitration. Neutrality and fairness of the court of arbitration are highly important factors in arbitration. Therefore, the arbitration institution should be operated independently and clearly from the government to ensure neutrality and fairness. The parties of arbitration should also be free and able to defend their interests sufficiently in the arbitration proceedings. Lastly, coordination between this law and other laws is necessary.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.99-109
• /
• 2022

A report released by the Chinese Maritime Court found that the natural environment and other objective factors have greatly reduced the risk of ship collision accidents with the advancement of technologies. However, collisions between merchant ships and fishing boats occur frequently along the coast during fishing seasons, which should be highly valued. International conventions and domestic legislation in China comprise detailed laws with respect to ship collisions, but the theory of ship collision infringement needs to be improved, enriched, and developed. Meanwhile, the development of the tort liability law provides theoretical support for ship collision infringement. As far as China's ship tort legal system is concerned, the research on ship collision tort damage compensation is relatively extensive, and the constitutive elements and causality of ship collision tort liability have also been studied in depth. The purpose of this paper is to explore the domestic legislation applicable to disputes related to ship collisions in China. As these laws are unclear on the resolution of disputes resulting from ship collisions, significant attention has been focused on the final judgments by the Supreme Court of China (SPC), as well as the judicial judgments set by the Maritime Court of China.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.39
• /
• pp.251-280
• /
• 2008

A party to the charter will not be able to rely upon the doctrine of frustration if an event which makes further performance impossible has been caused by his breach of the charter. Strictly speaking, this is not a situation of frustration at all but rather a case of discharge of the contract by breach. In the Sea Angel case, the defendant entered into a Lloyd's Standard Form of Salvage Agreement with owners of the casualty on the LOF 2000 form, incorporating the SCOPIC clause. The time charter was on the terms of the Shelltime 4 form. This case the trial of the action brought by the claimants owners of the vessel Sea Angel claiming outstanding hire from the defendant charterers. This Case was issued whether charterparty frustrated by refusal of port authorities to issue "No Demand Certificate" allowing port clearance pending payment of oil spillage clean-up costs. The court concluded that no attempt had yet been made to invoke the assistance of the Pakistani court to obtain the release of the vessel. There was not so radical or fundamental a change in the obligation assumed by defendant as to establish frustration. The purpose of this study aims to analyse frustration and time charter in the Sea Angel case.

• Strategy21
• /
• s.40
• /
• pp.144-161
• /
• 2016

A unanimous Award has been issued on 12 July 2016 by the Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in the arbitration instituted by the Republic of the Philippines against the People's Republic of China. The current security issues in the regional sea shall be carefully reflected to anticipate whether the Award could resolve the existing political conflict or rather will grow military tension in the region. The Award clearly directs the scope of delimiting maritime jurisdiction to coastal States in the Southern China sea, so it seems to help facilitating finding resolutions of regional disputes on maritime boundaries. On the other hand, there are several limitations in reality to implementation of the decisions included in the Award. USA could use the decisions to restrict military activities and exercise of unilateral maritime jurisdiction by China in the region, while China shall encounter guilt to illegitimacy of its activities as well as shaking the legal foundation of its policy in the region. Then the resolution of this dispute through application of international law would rather cause more political confusion. The intension of bringing the case to an international court were to resolve political difficulties. If, however, the political difficulties are not properly reflected in the legal decisions, such decision would possibly raise more political risks.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.71-92
• /
• 2012

The significant increase in international trade over the last few decades has been accompanied by an increase in the number of commercial disputes between Korea and India. Understanding the Indian dispute resolution system, including arbitration, is necessary for successful business operation with Indian companies. This article investigates characteristics of India's Arbitration and Conciliation Act in order to help then traders who enter into business with Indian companies to settle their disputes efficiently. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act(1996) based on the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules 1976, has a number of characteristics including the following: (i) this act covers ad hoc arbitration and institutional arbitration (ii) parties to the arbitration agreement have no option except arbitration in case of any dispute (iii) the parties can choose their own laws, places, procedures, and arbitrators (iv) the decision of the arbitrators is final and binding (v)role of the court has been minimized and (vi) enforcement of foreign awards is recognized. However, there have been some court decisions that have not been in tune with the spirit and provisions of the Act. Therefore, Korean companies insert the KCAB's standard arbitration clause into their contracts and use India's ADR(Alternative Dispute Resolution) Methods to strategically resolve their disputes. Additionally, Korean companies investigate Indian companies' credit standing before entering into business relations with them.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.63
• /
• pp.3-24
• /
• 2014

This paper focuses on the formation of contract under CISG through the case by the Korean court. Under the CISG, an offer means that a proposal for concluding a contact constitutes the offer, if it is sufficiently definite and indicates the intention of the offeror to be bound in case of acceptance. An acceptance is statement made by or other conduct of the offeree indicating assent to an offer, and this statement purports to be an acceptance but contains additional or different terms which do not materially alter the terms of the offer constitutes an acceptance. In practice, parties negotiate for lots of contract terms to conclude the contract, and the last reply indicating of assent which is made by statement or other conduct to a proposal for concluding a contract would be an acceptance. At this time the most important factor is the intention of parties whether they intend the offer or the acceptance, Purchase order by buyer or Offer Sheet by seller would be understand as condition precedent for the formation of contract. Nevertheless, keep in mind that the Korean court is consistent in the way Purchase order by buyer or Offer Sheet by seller is an acceptance to conclude contract.