선하증권상 국제재판관할 합의에 관한 비교법적 고찰

Freedom to choose which tribunal is to have jurisdiction to determine substantive disputes, is upheld in most commercial contracts. Neither the Hague nor the Hague-Visby Rules contain any provisions on jurisdiction in contrast to EC Jurisdiction Regulation and the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements. It is general practice in shipping industry all over the world that ocean carriers insert a sort of international jurisdiction clause in their bills of lading when they issue the bills. Typical wording of the international jurisdiction clause which carriers use is “any action against the carrier hereunder shall be brought before the Seoul Central District Court in Korea.”Once the forum issue is settled, the parties in many cases are able to resolve their dispute without further ado. Thus it is no surprise that the parties to a dispute will vigorously seek to advance their interests by trying to have the dispute resolved in a forum that will be sympathetic, convenient, or otherwise beneficial to their side. The jurisdiction agreement must also either be individually negotiated or contain a prominent statement that there is an exclusive choice of court agreement and specify the sections of the volume contract containing that agreement. These requirements also apply to a derogation from the Rotterdam Rules in a volume contract.