proximately caused by the charterer. Legal aspects of charterparties Whereas a charterparty is the contract between a shipowner and a charterer, a contract of carriage lies between the shipper and the carrier. A carrier will issue a shipper with a bill of lading, a receipt for cargo shipped which also serves as evidence of the contract of carriage. (In a demise charter, the charterer is the carrier; in a time or voyage charter the shipowner is the carrier). The US Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA), and the UK Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971 (which ratifies and incorporates the Hague-Visby Rules) do NOT apply to charterparties, but do apply to bills of lading (and similar documents such as ships delivery orders, or sea waybills). When a bill of lading is issued to a charterer by the shipowner, the question arises as to which is the dominant document. If a shipper returns a bill of lading to a carrier (perhaps as a pledge), the carrier will hold it only as a token of the pledge. In both USA and the UK, the COGSA legislation provide a statement of the minimum duties that a carrier owes to the cargo-owner. If the charterer has shipped cargo, charterparty document may incorporate the COGSA or the Harter Act, since the charter is also a cargo-owner. Such an incorporation is valid and enforceable even without the issuance of a bill of lading. In the reverse case, if a carrier issues a third-party shipper with a bill of lading that incorporates charterparty terms, the shipper/cargo-owner would not be liable for fees such as demurrage, which are payable only by a charter. Lawsuits brought for the breach of an obligation under a charterparty fall within admiralty jurisdiction. If a breach of charter terms creates a maritime lien, the suit may be in rem (i.e. against the vessel itself). In pleasure boating, the most frequent charter arrangement is bareboat yacht charter. A voyage or time charter is used only for larger yachts and is uncommon. Yacht charter flotillas are mostly made up of boats belonging to individuals or companies who only use their boats on a part-time basis or as an investment. A recent innovation in recreational boating is "time-share chartering" whereby several charterers are assigned a certain number of days per month or season in a manner which resembles real-estate time-share. Typical clauses A charterparty