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Abstract

The Rotterdam Rules of 2008 focused on the fundamental goal of creating a balance between the interests of the shippers and the interests of the carriers, after both sides complained about the Hamburg Rules of 1978 and the Treaty of Brussels of 1924 for the reason of the tendencies of each party at the expense of the other. The Rules developed many legal texts under the necessity of development and modernity in transport rules, starting with the change of the concept of the contract of carriage, passing through the documents and electronic data transfer and to determine the responsibility of the carrier, to the legal status of the shipper, in the sense of the shipper responsibilities and obligations. In this paper, the main key discussed is the legal status of the shipper and its problematic, where we tackled the definition of the shipper according to the Rotterdam Rules, to be described in the first section which has undergone the debate by the UN Committee No. 3 in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). In the first section, we discussed the traditional obligations of the shipper, which is to deliver the goods when it leaves the port of shipment, and receipt of the goods from their arrival to the country of destination. In the second section, the paper tackled the new obligations of the shipper, which reflected both the commitment to information and coordination, to ship, and unloading goods when the shipper and the carrier agree that the shipping and unloading falls on the shipper cost based on the principle of contractual freedom brought by the Rotterdam Rules. In the second section, we addressed the responsibility of the shipper, which was also a matter of considerable debate in the discussions at all stages of the preparation of these Rules, the section itself is divided into two points, the responsibility of the shipper to the carrier, as some of the delegations wanted the responsibility is supposed on error similar to the shipper, which was opposed by most of the delegations and to adopt the idea of proof the error. We also discussed in the shipper's subordinates who act in the shipper's name and for his account in implementing the contract of carriage, whether they are contractors, subcontractors, or shipper's employees and agents. In conclusion, the paper delivered some of findings and recommendations, one of the findings is the success in the development of the Rotterdam Rules of 2008, taking into account the interests of shippers and carriers, and calling the shipping states and carrier’s states to ratify it.

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