"United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea" was passed in July 3, 2008. on September 23, 2009 signing ceremony was held in Rotterdam. The system of maritime performing party is a special system in the transport convention, and constitutes an integral part of the Convention. Maritime performing party system is not the first system which brings in the carrier's independent contractor, but it is the most comprehensive and thorough one. It unified the duty of carrier's independent contractor in the maritime segment, and it is also an important progress in the developing process of international maritime legal system. There are some differences between the maritime performing party and China's current related system, i.e, the port maritime performing party and the intermediate performing party are included in the maritime performing party, and they can enjoy the carrier's exception clause and limitation of liability.

• Xiaoxian Liu
• Chang-Kyun Noh