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　　《装卸时间与滞期费》第6版

　　Laytime Clauses 装卸时间条款

　　Conventional days

　　约定传统日

　　2.14 The alternative to counting days from midnight to midnight (the calendar day) is the conventional day where time runs in periods of 24 hours, starting from the time when the notice of readiness expired. If, therefore, the parties agree a stipulation about the commencement of laytime which causes laytime to start at a speciﬁed hour, then the general rules relating to broken days are displaced. At ﬁrst instance, in a decision subsequently afﬁrmed on appeal, Bingham J said:

　　If the clause had stopped at the words ‘‘Cargo to be loaded at the rate of 200 tons per running day, Sundays and holidays excepted’’, I should have said that it meant that the cargo must be loaded at the rate of 200 tons per calendar day—that is, a day counting from midnight to midnight. But the clause continues:—‘‘Time for loading shall commence to count 12 hours after written notice has been given by the master . . . on working days between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. to the charterers or their agents that the vessel is in readiness to receive cargo’’. That, in my opinion, alters the construction that would otherwise have been put on the clause, and it makes the loading time commence at an hour during the twenty-four to be reckoned with reference to the notice given by the captain.

　　2.14另一种从午夜至午夜(即日历日) 计算天数的代替方式是约定传统日，它是从装卸准备就绪通知书到期之时起以每24小时的时间为一日/天进行计算的。因此，如果合同的事双方同意就装卸时间的开始做出规定，即装卸时间是从某个订明的时辰开始起算的话，那么关于非完整日的基本规则便被取而代之。在一审，在后来上诉时维持原判，Bingham法官说：

　　如果这一条款是在‘以每一连续日200吨的速度进行装货，星期日和节假日除外’词语之后结尾的，那么我就可以这样说，它的意思是指，必须按照每个日历日200吨的速度进行装货——即是，一天/日是从午夜到午夜为一天进行计算的。但是，该条款接下却这样规定：——‘装货时间则应在船长已经递交书面准备就绪通知书之后的12小时开始计算……在工作日的上午9点到下午6点之间递交给承租人或他的代理人表明船舶已经做好了接受货物的准备’。依我之见，这种措词改变了条款的原有结构，并且它将会使装货时间在根据船长递交准备就绪通知书所计算的24小之中的某个时辰开始。

　　2.15 If Sundays and holidays are excepted, then any periods which fall under these headings have to be excluded from the, at least two, conventional days in which they fall.

　　2.15如果星期日和节假日除外，那么归类于这些标题下的任何时间，至少是上述这两项时间，都必须从它们所归属的传统约定日中扣除掉。

　　2.16 The question also arises as to whether the rule that a part of a day counts as a whole day applies equally to conventional days as it does to calendar days. In Reardon Smith Line Ltd v. Ministry of Agriculture, Lord Devlin, having posed the question, answered it thus:

　　In Verren v. Anglo-Dutch Brick (1927) Ltd (1929) 34 Ll L Rep 56, at p. 58, Mr Justice Roche held that it did not. In the Court of Appeal (1929) 34 Ll L Rep 210, at p. 213, Lord Justice Scrutton reserved the point. Nevertheless, it is now the general practice, so your Lordships were told, to treat a part of an artiﬁcial day as a fraction.

　　2.16 又产生的问题是，不足一天计为完整一天的规则是否像它适用于日历日那样也同样适用于传统约定日。在Reardon Smith Line Ltd v. Ministry of Agriculture—案中，Devlin勋爵就曾经提出了这个问题，同时对此做出了这样的回答：

　　在Verren v. Anglo-Dutch Brick(1927) Ltd (1929) 34 Ll L Rep 56, at p. 58(1929年上诉法院第34案，劳氏法律报告第一卷，第58页)，Roche法官曾经判定对传统约定日并不适用。在上法庭案件1929年上诉法院第34案例，劳氏法律报告第210页，Scruntton大法官在第213页保留了他的观点。总而言之，正如诸位大法官阁下被告知的那样，将一个由人为规定的日/天的一部分看作为一日的几分之几，现在已成基本惯例。
　　

　　Running days

　　连续日

　　2.17 The term running days came into use towards the end of the last century as a means of distinguishing ‘‘days’’ from ‘‘working days’’. The leading case on its evolution is Nielsen v. Wait and in particular the judgment of Lord Esher MR, who said:

　　‘‘Days’’ include every day. If the word ‘‘days’’ is put into the charterparty—so many days for loading and unloading—and nothing more, that includes Sundays and it includes holidays. ‘‘Working days’’ are distinguished from ‘‘days’’. But I suppose and take it, that there might be another dispute as to what ‘‘days’’ would mean. If ‘‘days’’ are put in, there is sure to come some discussion about what is the length of the day during which the charterer is to be obliged to be ready to take delivery or the shipowner to deliver, because the length of days may vary according to the custom of the port. In some countries, for anything that I know, the custom of the ports may be to work only four hours a day, and if ‘‘days’’ are put into the charterparty, there may be a dispute—although I do not say that it would be a valid contention according to English law—whether the day included more than four hours. And merchants and shipowners have invented this nautical term, about which there can be no dispute. They have invented the phrase ‘‘running days’’. It can be seen what it means. What is the run of the ship? how many days does it take a ship to run from the West Indies to England? that is the running of the ship. The run of a ship is a phrase well known...

　　2.17连续日，这一术语是在上个世纪的末叶开始使用的，其用意是要以此将‘日/天’与‘工作日’加以区分。在其演变的过程中，最著名的案例是Nielsen v. Wait—案，而其中尤其以上诉法院院长Esher勋爵的判词最为著称，他说：

　　‘日/天’包括每一天。如果词语‘日/天’写进租船合同之中——例如多少天可以用于装货和卸货作业， ——仅此而已，别无其他，那么它就包括了星期日和节假日。‘工作日’与‘日/天’的含义不同。但是据我推断并认为，很可能还会有其他的关于‘日/天’之含义的争议。如果写入‘日/天’，这肯定会出现关于承租人必须在此期间有责任做好接船准备或者船东做好交船准备的那一天/日的时间长度的争论，这是因为‘日/天’的时间长度会因各个港口的习惯不同而差异。在某些国家，就我所知，港口的习惯可能是每天只工作4个小时，因此，如果在租船合同中写入‘日/天’，就可能会产生这样的争议——尽管我并不能说，按照英国的法律它可能是一种正当有效的论点——这种日/天的概念是否包括了多于4小的时间。然而，货方和船东已经发明创造出一个航海术语，关于这个问题可能也就不存在争议了。他们所创造出的这个短语就是‘连续日’。大家完全可以明白它的含义是什么。什么是船舶的经营？船舶从西印度群岛开到英格兰要花费多少天？那是指船舶的运营。船舶的经营是一个众所周知的短语……

　　2.18 And later in the same judgment:

　　‘‘Running days’’ therefore mean the whole of every day when a ship is running. What is that? That is every day, day and night. There it is as plain as possible. They are the days, during which, if the ship were at sea, she would be running. That means every day.

　　2.18 ，随后，在同一篇判词中，他又接着说：

　　因此，‘连续日’是指船舶在运营时每一天的全部时间。那是什么意思呢？那就是指每一天，白天和黑夜。其含义尽可能地简单通俗。如果船舶在海上，它们就是指船舶运行期间的日期天数。这就意味着是每一天。
　　

　　2.19 However, in the same case, Lord Esher did also go on to say that the sequence of days could be interrupted, either by an express provision or by proof of a custom excluding certain days at the particular port.

　　2.19然而，就在这同一个案例中，Esher勋爵的确又这样接着说：日/天的连续性可以被明示条文或者在特定港口，被将某些日子排除在外的习惯之举证所打断。

　　2.20 The Voylayrules 1993 provide:

　　‘‘RUNNING DAYS’’ or ‘‘CONSECUTIVE DAYS’’ shall mean days which follow one immediately after the other.

　　2.20 《1993年程租合同装卸时间解释规则》规定：

　　‘连续天’或‘连贯日’必须是指一天紧接着一天的日数。

　　2.21 Some charters provide for ‘‘running hours’’. In such a case, time runs continuously, by day and by night, both during and out of normal hours, except for those periods excluded expressly or by custom. The term ‘‘running hours’’ is used most commonly in the oil trade where it is used in conjunction with both exclusion clauses and warranties as to the vessel’s performance.

　　2.21某些租船合同规定‘连续小时’。在这种情况下，除了根据明示规定或根据习惯应将这些时间予以排除之外，不论是在正常时间之内还是之外，时间都将昼夜连续地计算。‘连续小时’这一术语被极为普遍地运用到石油贸易的运输中。在这种运输中，它和除外条款以及关于船舶的履约保证条款一起使用。

　　2.22 An illustration of an express provision interrupting running days is given by Burnett Steamship Co Ltd v. Joint Danube & Black Sea Shipping Agencies, where a laytime clause provided for a loading rate per running day, Sundays and non-working holidays excepted.

　　2.22 在Burnett Steamship Co Ltd v. Joint Danube & Black Sea Shipping Agencies—案，提供了一个明示条文中断连续日的实例。在这个案例中，装卸时间条款定每一个连续日的装货效率，并将星期日和非工作的节假日除外。

　　编者介绍

　　魏长庚船长：1996-2000 年在大连海事大学学习，获得航海技术专业学士学位。具有16年海上船舶航行经验，魏长庚船长一直热爱海商法（重点是英国海商法）的学习，并致力海商法的翻译工作（包括Informa出版的Bill of Lading（提单），Laytime and Demurrage（装卸时间与滞期费）等书籍

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