MEĐUNARODNA ŠPEDICIJA I HARMONIZACIJA DOMAĆEG PRAVA SA PRAVOM EVROPSKE UNIJE

Maksimović Sanja (Правни факултет за привреду и правосуђе, Универзитетa Привредна академија, Нови Сад), sanja.m03@gmail.com

In contemporary conditions of business, international freight forwarding represents significant economic activity, in other words, it is a set of complex relations of great number of participants. Therefore, its juridical regulation is of great importance and presents an important role because its aim is to balance the interests of all participants. In order to adequately present the complexity of international freight forwarding activities, this paper will briefly present its development, which follows the progress of trade since the ages when rich Venetian merchants authorized the delivery of goods to agents, who were paid for the service. During the 19th century, international freight forwarding became an independent activity and still continues with significant contribution to the development of international trade. The purpose of this paper is to show the progress of juridical regulation which follows the dynamics of freight forwarding development, and particular emphasis will be on expressions like “freight forwarder“ and „freight forwarding contract“. Regarding the facts that the Republic of Serbia tends to become the member of the European Union and that it is currently focused on harmonization of documents in order to reach the above-mentioned aims, it will therefore effect the purpose of this paper as an analysis of the efforts Republic of Serbia is making in order to reconcile the documents concerning the field of international freight forwarding as well. This paper will pay attention to the international freight forwarding association (FIATA) too, and its most important documents because of the fact that they are relevant when the matter of international freight forwarding is analyzed.

Keywords: international freight forwarding, freight forwarder, freight forwarding contract, European Union, harmonization of documents, FIATA