LIABILITY OF THE FREIGHT FORWARDERS ACCORDING TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

Abstract

This paper deals with the liability of the freight forwarders according to national and
international law. The liability of the freight forwarder is an extremely complex issue for
theoretical examination. The latter is especially case considering the process of complete
transformation of the freight forwarder position that freight forwarders experienced in the last
decade of 21-st century. Considering the fact that process of transformation of freight forwarders position imposed a new terminology determinant - logistic operators, in this paper we use
the term freight forwarders, and emphasize that the subject of examination is
conventional/classical freight forwarders.
Theoretical examination of the freight forwarder status is vital for clarification of many
practical dilemmas and disputes in logistic sector. The determination of the freight forwarders
liability is aimed at reducing of judical and arbitral disputes in Macedonian practice, and
analysis of the legal regime of the freight forwarder’s liability in the context of international
shiiping, which present the main goal of this paper.
The clarification of the freight forwarders liability is closely related to the determination
of the freight forwarder position towards his principal and the third party in the obligation.
For the purposes of the determination of freight forwarders liability, the position of freight
forwarders in front of the customs services, insurance companies, warehouses, companies for
control of the quality and quantity of the goods, will be a subject of consideration.