鹿特丹規則對海上貨物運送人責任之影響

IMPACTS OF ROTTERDAM RULES UPON OCEAN CARGO CARRIERS’ LIABILITIES

本文分析鹿特丹規則與我國海商法對海上貨物運送人責任規範之主要差異，包括：運送人強制責任期間、運送人基本義務、免責事由、舉證責任、單位責任限制、貨損通知、訴訟時效及其他規範，並探討此等差異對海上及多式聯運運送義務及責任之影響。鹿特丹規則將其適用範圍擴大至海運加其他模式（maritime plus），並修正運送人基本義務及其他義務、採完全過失責任制修訂其法定免責事由、明文規範舉證責任次序及內容、提高託運人義務及責任、擴大對運輸文件之規範（含電子運輸紀錄）、明定契約權利之轉讓及貨物交付規則、對無單放貨特別規定、新增「批量契約」規定、修正貨損通知期限及訴訟時效等。此等變革之目的在解決海上貨物運送及多式聯運所面臨之國際立法多元化及分歧的困擾。惟其修正範圍較廣，對船貨雙方權利義務關係之影響甚大，故本文亦探討鹿特丹規則對上述議題的適用問題，並提出我國未來是否據以修法之考慮因素，期能提供主管機關參考。

This article analyzes different rules provided in the Rotterdam Rules and the ROC Maritime Law, respectively, including the carrier’s period of responsibility, statutory obligations, exemptions, burden of proof, limitation of liability, notice of damage or loss, limitation of action and other related rules, and further explores the overall impacts on maritime and multimodal transport. The Rotterdam Rules as a whole have extended their scope of application to “maritime plus.” They have also revised the carriers’ fundamental obligations (e.g. provision of seaworthy ships, and duty of care), modified the statutory exemptions according to a full fault-based liability system, specified the contents of burden-of-proof, revised the contents of carriers’ liabilities, increased the duty of shippers, expanded the regulations of transport documents (e.g. electronic transport records), enumerated the rights of control of goods, as well as rules on cargo delivery, amended the special requirements on releasing goods without the production of a bill of landing, added in new rules on volume contract, and rectified the time for both the notice of cargo damage and limitation of action. The above mentioned modifications aim to resolve problems arising from the discrepancy of various international conventions on maritime and multimodal transport; however, it is also needed to take into account that such wide range of revision may well have great impact on both carriers and cargo owners in practice. To this end, this article continues to discuss potential problems on the application of the Rotterdam Rules, and further proposes suggestions for the authorities’ reference in future domestic laws revision tasks.