International Commercial Law Regulating the Carrier and the Shipper Relationship Free Essay Example, 2500 words

In the issue, Hilda, the buyer, is confronted with a case of 5,000 cans of olives which became rusted, while being transported aboard the ship Maid of Hampshire, due to sea water seeping through the ship s leak and 5,000 other cans of olives whose content are rendered useless because of holes in their seals. The significant facts of the case are: Franco, the seller, is either a resident of Neapolitan, Italy or has established his place of business there; Hilda lives, resides or has her place of business in Southampton, UK, and; the carrier Maid of Hampshire is presumably a UK ship from its name and place of destination. The issues here should be: whether or not Franco is liable for the damages of the olives; whether the Maid of Hampshire is likewise liable, and; whether the law of Italy or UK should prevail in this case. Since both parties are either citizens or residents of the Member States of the European Union, resort must be had to what EU law is on the matter of conflict of la ws. We will write a custom essay sample on International Commercial Law Regulating the Carrier and the Shipper Relationship or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The first law that comes to mind is the Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (Rome I) or simply the Rome Convention of 1980, which is the EU law governing contracts and obligations with inherent conflict of laws written into them because parties are nationals of different states within the EU. In fine, the aforesaid EC Directive gives guidance on which law should govern a contract where the parties and the transactions take place in different jurisdictions within the EU. Generally, the directive provides that the applicable law, in a conflict of laws situation, is the law of the place that was agreed to by the parties at the time the contract was entered into. This should have been explicitly made by the parties either by including it in the terms of the contract or can be inferred by the circumstances of the case and the parties can even make a com bination of choices by making certain terms governable by the law of a country and other terms by the law of another, and may even eventually choose to change the original choice and replace it with another.