Preface The year of 2014 was, subsequent to 2008, another year with alarms raised at all border posts for the disputes over letters of credits. In Guangzhou, on behalf of an Australian bank, we handled a series of stop-payment cases raised by a Chinese bank; in the series cases of Dezheng financial fraud in Qingdao Port, as engaged by another Australian bank, we dealt with the injunction orders successively issued in Erdos, Urumchi and Weihai. However, The most remarkable case should be the battles in two-level courts in Wuxi and Nanjing we involved on behalf of a Hong Kong negotiating bank for four years.

On 12 February 2015, in the UK, The Insurance Bill has officially enacted as The Insurance Act 2015, which shall apply to all insurance contracts entered into after 12 August 2016, unless otherwise stipulated or agreed.

In April 2021, the ro-ro passenger ship mv ZHONG HUA FU QIANG exploded when she was mooring in Weihai, as a result the vehicles and cargos onboard were severely damaged. Fortunately, there was no personal injury. In May, the shipowner applied to the maritime court to set up limitation fund for the potential maritime claims, whereby limited their liability to a range of RMB 28 million (SDR 3,039,437.5). After noticing the court announcement many cargo owners raised a common question: whether and how shipowner can limit its liability?

【Key words: Time charter, obligation to supply, deviation, safe port】