해상물건운송에서 선하증권의 부지문구에 관한 미국법의 시사점

In a bill of lading a carrier has inserted “unknown wording”, aka “unknown clause”, which means that a carrier does not know the contents, weight, quality etc., of the goods in a contract for carriage of goods by sea. Claims often arises on the difference between the contents of a bill of lading and the actual cargo delivered. In a practical respect it is impossible for a carrier to check and count the whole cargo prior to shipment. Therefore it is common for carriers to insert unknown wording in a bill of lading to disclaim their obligations to deliver goods which conform to description. The Korea's Commercial Act does not have provisions to regulate directly the validity of unknown wording. However Korea's Supreme Court accepted the validity of unknown clause. United States of America has three acts regulating marine transport, which are “the Harter Act”, “COGSA”, and “the Pomerene Act”. The Harter Act requires to state in a bill of lading whether it be carrier’s or shipper’s weight, and it further states such document shall be prima facie evidence of the receipt of the merchandise therein described. COGSA has similar provisions to Korea's Commercial Act. The Pomerene Act(the Federal Bill of Lading Act) has a provision directly regulating the validity of unknown clause. Carrriers are allowed, under the Pomerene Act, to effectively disclaim their obligations to deliver goods conforming to the description. However, the protection is available only to the uninformed carrier. The Pomerene Act helps the stability of law for it has a direct provision on the validity of unknown wording.