복합운송계약과 그 준거법의 결정

Multimodal transport contract and the determination of the law applicable to it

International transport has a high proportion in international commerce. In international transport, there are land transport, maritime transport and air transport, and multimodal transport combines two or more of these means of transport. Multimodal transport-related disputes can be resolved by international arbitration or international litigation, if international lawsuit is issued, the problem of determining of the international jurisdiction and the applicable law will be arisen. In this paper, we deal with the law applicable to the multimodal transport that is now discussing the amendments in the Korean Commercial Code. On the process of reviewing the law applicable to the multimodal transport contract, first we review the applicable law of the general maritime carriage contract. Especially most of the international transportation includes the maritime transport alone or as part of a multimodal transport, in this paper, we review the applicable law to the charter party and bill of lading, which is closely related to the maritime transportation. Multimodal transport contract agreement is a kind of the contract, so we review the law applicable to the general contract theory. The discussion of Korean Commercial Code revision of multimodal transport clause also will be briefly mentioned. The revision of the Commercial Code relating to multimodal transport is under operation, so if the applicable law is determined by the laws of the Republic of Korea, the substantive content can be differently determined. In this point, the choice of the network liability system is important in conjunction with the contents of the applicable law. It is urgent to pass the multimodal transport related bill, so that, if the applicable law to the multimodal transport is specified by the Republic of Korea, the law can fulfill the international standard of multimodal transport.