Yaxuan Xu, Liuyi Zhou, Yuqi Zhang, Yimeng Wang and Tongyue Wang,
The consignee under a contract for the carriage of goods is not a party to the contract but is the ultimate holder of the benefits arising from the carriage. Its legal status is highly contested in both legal doctrine and judicial practice. Three principal views have emerged in the literature: the theory that treats the consignee as a contracting party, the theory that regards the consignee as a purely benefiting third party, and the theory that positions the consignee as a recipient of rights. These competing approaches readily give rise to divergent judicial outcomes. In light of Article 522 of the Civil Code, the consignee should be characterized as an independent beneficiary under a genuine third-party-benefit contract, bearing both rights and obligations. The current legal framework governing consignees suffers from several structural deficiencies: blurred characterization of legal status, fragmented regulation of rights, imbalance in the allocation of rights and obligations, difficulties in the enforcement and protection of rights, and a regulatory gap with respect to new business models. These shortcomings hamper the law's ability to respond to practical demands arising from e-commerce logistics, multimodal transport, and related developments. Accordingly, legislation should clarify the legal position of the consignee, refine and systematize the rules governing its rights and obligations, and rely on judicial interpretations to harmonize adjudicative standards, balance the interests of the three parties, and maintain order in the freight market.
Contract for the Carriage of Goods; Consignee; Genuine Third-Party-Benefit Contract; The Civil Code of the People's Republic of China; Remedies for Right