The Time Charterparty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Time Charterparty - Essay Example Essentially, contracts were just oral agreements between the concerned persons but whoever should contracts be written agreements? In order to maintain legality the need for writing an agreement is important for the agreement and moreover agreements must meet a number of criteria to be legally valid: All the parties must be in agreement and something of value must be exchanged in the process. Different states have laws that allow whether given contracts need to be written or not. With a clear understanding of the contract law a closer look at what happens during an agreement between the parties and the exchange process is important. Agreement Between Parties Although it may seem obvious to talk about an agreement since when two parties enter into a contract they must have come to an agreement. However this is an essential element for any contract to be valid and all the parties must agree on major issues in the contract. Although there might be situations that prevent an agreement from being fully settled at and with regard to this different states have rules defining when an agreement legally exists. Offer and Acceptance A legal contract exists when one party makes an offer and the other party accepts it. This however would be orally or in writing. In normal businesses today, once an offer has been made it must be accepted for the deal to go on but however there would be situations when one party may be slow in fully settling the agreement and would think about it for a while or try to get a better deal. Thus unless an offer states an â€Å"expiry† date it however remains open for a â€Å"reasonable† period of time. To avoid any conflicts the best way to make an offer is to include an expiry date.3 In the sea there are often contracts of hire for vessels. This is for a specific period of time and hence the name â€Å"time charter hire†. Different lawyers have got a different interpretation of the laws relating to time charter hire. In this paper, different terms and concepts would be introduced. An in depth analysis of the charter party clauses for both hire and freight follows and finally a closer look on the two statements provided and a conclusion that reflects which of the two statements from Satya Kamal and Lord Denning’s cases best shows how the law relating to time charter hire should be applied. Terms and Concepts Time Charter Party The Time Charter Party is also called the Voyage Charter. It is governed by the general rules that bind the contract of law whereby there should be an offer and acceptance and that the two parties must have agreed on given terms and conditions. Moreover, the contract should be in writing or orally whatever the two parties agree on for the contract to be legal. In other terms, a Time Charter is a contract for the services to be given by the owner of a ship to a charterer. The services are usually given by the owner’s employees usually servants led by the master and the members are the crew.4 The charterer has does not receive any interest for use of the vessel but the services being rendered by the shipâ₠¬â„¢s owner are the ones that matter. Moreover, the charterer benefits from the commercial use of the vessel by giving the instructions to the servants on the cargoes to be loaded and the voyages to be undertaken and other orders may be given by the charterer in accordance with the terms and agreements of the charter-party. The charter-party has a duration that implicates the period of service but not limited to the geographical area covered or the amount of load carried. Thus time charter does not provide for freight, laytime and the charterer is obliged to pay for hire, delivery, redelivery and