The Peking Rules

The Peking Rules have not been ratified in an official document and carry no legal weight. They are just a private set of regulations for settling loss and damage by sacrifice. They were accepted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) on 1 January 1975 and remain in force today. The structure of the Peking Rules is uniform and is not divided into general and specific regulations. The rules are comprised of a peculiar type of preamble and eight titled articles. The range of loss and damage by sacrifice includes extraordinary losses, damages, and reasonably incurred extraordinary expenses resulting from actions taken to protect vessel and cargo from a common danger posed by forces of nature, accidents, or other extraordinary circumstance that can occur in maritime transport. Undoubtedly, the York-Antwerp Rules, especially their Hamburg version from 1974, significantly influenced the Peking Rules, as is reflected by the striking similarities in text and character of the two sets of rules. The authoress also discusses the problem of the Peking Rules in reference to the Polish maritime code.