The Types of the Charter-Parties in International Commercial Shipping

Abstract

One of the most important tools for the use of sea and river vessels for the carriage of goods is a contract of affreightment (charter party). Under the terms of the charter-party, one party (the shipowner) transfers the vessel or part of its premises to the other party (the charterer) for the established remuneration (the freight).Despite the fact that charter-parties have long been used in the practice of shipping, however, today both in doctrine and in practice there is no unified approach to their classification and understanding of their legal nature.According to the author, at present all charter-parties can be divided into three main types: voyage-charter, time-charter and bareboat-charter (demise-charter). Attempts by some domestic and foreign scholars to identify other types of charter-parties, such as daily-charter, slot-charter, etc., are unreasonable, since other types of charter-parties do not have their own value and are essentially only special cases or combinations of the three above types of charter-parties.A voyage-charter is essentially a contract for the carriage of goods by sea with a stipulation to provide an entire ship, or a part of ship, or specified compartments of a ship for the carriage of goods between ports. The shipowner in this case retains full control over the vessel without any exceptions in favor of the charterer.Under the time-charter the shipowner undertakes to provide the charterer with the vessel and the services of the ship’s crew members for use for a certain period for the carriage of goods, passengers or for other purposes of merchant shipping for a specified remuneration (freight). If the ship is chartered for the carriage of goods, then we are dealing with a contract of the sea carriage. If the vessel is chartered for other purposes, such as marine scientific research, etc., then the time-charter party is a special type of contract (suigeneris).A bareboat charter party is a hiring of the ship alone without crew. Bareboat charter party and demise charter are actually equivalent concepts, if there are differences between them, they are minimal. Their legal nature is absolutely the same, which is based on the transfer of the vessel for a certain period in the full and undivided possession of the charterer.