컨테이너 터미널 운영자의 책임에 관한 연구

Abstract

Under the Korea's economic circumstances, which have lack of natural resources and have been highly dependant on foreign economic trend, smooth international trade is the most important part because it has highly contributed to Korea economic growth. To make continuous advancement in international trade of Korea, there are some tasks to be performed regarding international carriage of goods: studying, establishing effective law system, and implementing up-to-date policies.

Recently, shipping and port industries have rapidly changed. Vessels have become bigger and exclusively operated. At the same time, port terminals have transformed to mechanized and exclusive-operated terminals. Furthermore, ports have expanded its function to intermodal logistics center which totally performs from loading and discharging of in-and-out-bound vessels, storage, and customs procedures to distribution-and-information center. In short, these days, ports are called as "the total logistics distribution complex."

In this situation, for better logistics flowing smoothly within the legal framework, the uniformity of Liability Laws is getting more and more important. At this point, "the uniformity of Liability Laws" means not just on the international uniformity of Liability of Sea Carriers but on the Liability of Port Terminal Operators who are responsible for a wide range of parts in international trade as mentioned above.

Currently, however, under the existing laws of Korea, there are no standardized laws on the Liability of Terminal Operators in international trade. Therefore, this paper will show reform measures on legal problems related to liability and indemnify of container terminal operators by studying stevedoring agreements, agreements on carriage of goods by sea, and 1989 Convention on Liability of Operators of Transport Terminal in International Trade.