Time charterparties and bills of lading

Abstract

Time charters usually specifically envisage the issue of bills of lading to enable the charterer to handle the varying commercial situations: so, but to a more limited extent, do voyage charters. Relevant differences between charterparty and bill of lading became more likely to be confined to freight/hire and responsibility for less central matters such a loading or unloading, jurisdiction and arbitration clauses. If a bill of lading issued under a time charter provides for carriage to a port outside the time charter limits, it is outside the whole scheme of the charter and potentially affects navigational and war safety and the profitability of the owner’s enterprise. A bill of lading misrepresenting the condition of the cargo on loading would also be untrue, and signature of it cannot be regarded as authorised. A shipper who deals directly with a ship operator for a bill of lading contract may not know that the carrying ship is subject to a charterparty at all.