Coastal and waterway transport contracts in India

The Bill of Lading governs the documented aspect, the insurance is as a support, the merchant shipping act governs the rights and liabilities of the parties and the Carriage of goods act governs the disputes in matter of the marine Contracts and the carriage of goods. Objective of the study . The objective of making this project is to study and research on Coastal and Waterway Transport contracts in India which is very important from the point of law of contracts. 2.The main objective of my study is to deduce and find out the procedure of how the contracts are formed during a shipping agreement and the rights and liabilities of efferent people during a same contract 3. All these concepts are different and various cases have given different Judgments upon different situations. 4. Also I came to know about how these concepts are varied in different nations like United States of America and United Kingdom. Research questions – The research is mainly based on these questions:l . H ow did the coastal and waterway transport contracts evolve in India? . Which acts and statutes have been set up for these types of contracts? 3. Explain the procedure of how does the coastal contracts work and the documents needed for the same. 4. What is the importance of the Bill of Lading in these types of contracts? 31 Page 5. How does insurance play an important role in these contracts? 6. Mention the Comparative study of India with US and I-J in these types of contracts. 7. Please give needful suggestion for the topic and how to improve the position of coastal and waterway transport contract in India. Limitation of the project:l .In addition in all contracts of carriage of goods by sea, there were implied undertakings by the carrier that the carrying vessel was seaworthy and that the ship would commence and carry cut the contractual voyage with reasonable diligence without unjustifiable deviation. The Bill of lading was the basic shipping document, evidencing the contractual r elationship between carrier and shipper and forming the basis of all claims arising from the transportation of goods by sea.It was originally a non-negotiable document but with the growth of commerce the need was felt for transferring the property in the goods before the arrival of the goods at the destination by endorsing the bill of lading to the buyer and the practice came to be established of issuing â€Å"negotiable† bill of lading. The early bills of lading contained only the common law exception. As time passed, however, ship-owners began generally to amend their bills of lading by introducing exemption clauses and thereby limit contractually the strict liability imposed upon them by maritime law.As and when court decision went against the carriers, they introduced more and more protective or pardoning clauses in the bill of lading and depending upon their bargaining position at a time when the volume of world trade exceeded the carrying capacity of shipping, there sou ght to exempt themselves from practically every liability of ocean carriage. This resulted in growing satisfaction among shippers, bankers and underwriters who demanded legislation to remove the abuse produced by unlimited freedom of contract enjoyed by the http://www. Livening. Mom/Opinion/hkC9ZcvCbqlWbB141 Lends/After-years-of-neglect- India-wakes-up-toccatas-inland-WA. HTML, last accessed on 27th July 1 up. M. 5 Page carriers, the results was that several countries enacted legislation on the subject. The Harpers Act was enacted by USA in 1893 followed by the Australian Carriage of goods by Sea Act in 1904, The New Zealand Shipping and Seaman Act in 1908 and the Canadian Water Carriage Act in 1910. The Harder Act aimed at protection of cargo interests, prohibited clauses exonerating the carrier or his agents from liability for faults in the care and custody of the cargo but at the same time.The Act provided that the carrier was not to be held liable for results of newsworthiness i f he had exercised due diligence to make the ship seaworthy and if the damage caused to the cargo resulted from faults and errors in the navigation or management of the vessel. The Harpers Act thus established an important principle in that it settled the problem f the carriers liability by making a distinction between faults in the management and navigation of the vessel and faults in the care and custody of cargo.