컨테이너의 해상법상 지위와 활용도 증대방안에 대한 연구

Abstract

The container box is very important for common carriage of goods. The common carrier should provide a container box to the shipper. However, there is an ambiguity about the container box under the Korean commercial code. The container box is not a physical facility. There is no provisions which impose the duty of providing the box upon the carrier for the benefit of the shipper. The author argues that the box should be a physical facility under the Korean commercial code. The code should impose upon the carrier the duty to provide the container box to the shipper. On the other hand, the shipper should have the duty to return the box to the carrier as soon as it takes out the cargo from the box. The author admits the necessity for the box to be managed by a certain special company. Because the carrier's owning lots of box is very burdensome, the leasing company may be helpful. The author suggests that the Korean Shipping Act should admit leasing companies for the container box and container managing companies as a kind of shipping business. The author also suggests to adopt registration system for the box, which will make the government to manage the box more efficiently. Currently almost all of container box is made by Chinese companies located in China and thus Korean shipping company is heavily dependent on the Chinese container box leasing company. In order for the Korean shipping and trading business to maintain smooth flow of logistics, they should embrace public function of container box. There is necessity for the Korean government to assist private sector to reserve some percent of box to overcome special circumstances, maintaining several container box producers and leasing companies within Korean territory. The author suggests to enact an Act for effective maintaining container box.