La Liberté contractuelle dans les clauses du connaissement
Institution:
Paris 2Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
Toward the end of the last century, the american senate, by the harter act, introduced a movement tending to protect the shippers against the excessive use by the maritime carriers of various clauses of bills of lading, amounting to exclude his liability. Following the harter act, international conventions and national adopted, shaping the modern patern of the carrier's liability. To be effective, this trend of legislation had to be mandatory. Studying the validity of the bills of lading clauses, analysed through such laws and conventions likely to be applied by french tribunals, shows the constant - though not universal - restriction of the carrier's freedom of contract, often worsen by the judges'strictness. Even if it cannot be denied that this attitude was necessary at the time the harter act was passed, the legitimacy of certain rules is now discussed, due to the technical evolution of carriage of goods. The traditional position of the carriers imposing his will to the economically weak shipper is no longer the reflection of reality. Moreover, the modern methods of transfert of documents influence heavely the future of bills of lading. But at the same time that mawyers and people involved in the shipping industry are still discussing the meaning of the last convetion on carriage of goods by sea, scrutinizing and weighing its provisions, one can notice a new legal trend, especially at the european community level, advocating freedom of contract and favouring the application of commercial rules.
Abstract FR:
A la fin du siecle dernier, le senat americain, en votant le harter act, a amorce un mouvement de protection des chargeurs, visant a equilibrer les forces en presencer lors du transport maritime. Il s'agissaitde mettre un frein a la pratique, devenue excessive, des clauses de non-responsablite inserees par les transporteurs dans leurs connaissements. A la suite du harter act, conventions internationales et lois nationales se sont multipliees, precisant le contour du regime de responsabilite du transporteur. Pour etre efficace, ce nouveau courant de legislation se devait d'etre imperatif. L'etude de la validite des clauses du connaissement, classees et grou@pees par objet, analysees au regard des lois et conventions susceptibles d'etre appliquees par un juge francais, demontre la restriction progressive, mais non universelle, de la liberte contractuelle du transporteur, souvent encore aggravee par la severite des tribunaux a son egard. S'il est indeniable que cette reaction etait necessaire a l'origine, on peut maintenant s'interroger sur la justification de certaines regles apparaissant inadaptees du fait de l'evolution des techniques de transport maritime qui aboutit a inverser l'image traditionnelle du transporteur imposant sa volonte au chargeur, economiquement plus faible. L'incroyable modernisation des methodes de transfet des documents n'est pas non plus sans influence sur l'avenir du connaissement. Et alors que juristes et praticiens des diverses nations maritimes s'interrogent sur le sens et la portee de la derniere convention en la matiere, scrutant et pesant ses dispositions, mettant en balance maladresses, incertitudes et ameliorations, nous assistons au developpement, notamments a l'echelon communautaire, et comme a contre-courant, de tendances pronant la liberte contractuelle et privilegiant le recours aux regles de la pratique commerciale.