운송물 인도행위에 대한 헤이그-비스비규칙 제3조 6항의 적용에 관한 해석

An Application of the Article 3(6) of the Hague/Visby Rules in relation of Delivery Operations of a Cargo

This paper considers the issue that whether or not one-year time bar provision of ArticleⅢ Rule 6 of the Hague-Visby Rules is applicable in the context of misdelivery of goods by a sea carrier. The Hague-Visby Rules constitute an international regime which regulates many of the carrier’s duties under a bill of lading contract. However, the Hague-Visby Rules has two outstanding legal issues: firstly, at what point the mandatory regime of Hague-Visby ceases; and secondly, even if the mandatory legal regime of Hague-Visby Rules remains applicable, if the time bar provision is applicable in the case of misdelivery of goods. These two outstanding legal issues have been litigated for years in various countries. The issue of at what point the mandatory regime of the Hague/Hague-Visby Rules commences and at what point ceases in a contract of carriage has been argued in various instances in different jurisdictions signatory to the Hague/Hague-Visby Rules in authorities concerning time-bar. The meaning of time-bar provision in the Rules barred the remedy and extinguished the right to claim. The cargo claimant’s claim is extinguished under the time bar provisions of ArticleⅢ, rule 6 if he does not bring his claim within 12 months. The Hague-Visby Rules seem to apply, according to ArticleⅠ(b), ArticleⅠ(e) and ArticleⅡ taken together, “from the time when the goods are loaded on to the time when the goods are discharged from the ship.” The 12-month period is started to run from the time when the goods were delivered or should have been delivered. From a strict reading of the Hague-Visby Rules, it would appear that the Hague-Visby Rules do not apply before loading or after discharge because delivery is outside the scope of the Hague-Visby Rules. The Hague-Visby Rules were complied at that time it has been drafted when globalization of trade had not yet taken place and when information technology and the logistics industry were in there infancy. The scenario contemplated by the drafters at that time, being transportation only by sea, has become very different from that in the real world nowadays. The unsatisfactory wording of the Hague-Visby Rules in general, and its ArticleⅢ, Rules 6 in particular, resulting in continuous world-wide legal debates as to the applicability of the Hague-Visby Rules.