Legal Issues On Damage For Maritime Personal Injury And Death

Maritime personal injury and death is defined as the unlawful trespass to the rights of life and health of a natural person at sea or on waters adjacent to sea or during shipping related activities. The main remedy for maritime personal injury and death is damage. This dissertation analyzes and discovers the legal issues underlying in maritime personal injury and death cases, and clarifies the current legal system concerning this field. Based on these, this dissertation put forward some suggestions on the improvement of the system.The dissertation consists of five chapters, the main contents of which are as follows:The first chapter is titled as "Introduction to Maritime Injury and Death". It begins with the legal definition of the topic concerned, and analyzes the several elements contained in the definition. Afterwards, this chapter discusses the nature of the damage for maritime personal injury, the compensated object of the damage, as well as the objective and purpose of it. Furthermore, this chapter also discovers the fundamental principles of the compensation. The system of current legislations regarding maritime personal injury and death is also introduced repectively at both domestic and international levels.The second chapter, "Liability of Maritime Personal Injury and Death", furthers the discussion about the liability to compensate the injured on the basis of tort liability as characterized in Chapter One. The discussion includes issues on the subjects in martime personal injury and death cases, which are the claimants and the liable parties, and on the principles of liability distribution such as fault liability, strict liability and equitable liability. In addition, this chapter also discusses other potential liabilities that may incurred in maritime personal injury and death accidents, including liability arising from the breach of contracts, and situations involving no civil liabilities such as national compensation and occupational injury insurance. The third chapter, "Scope and Amout of the Damage for Maritime Personal Injury and Death", first defines the scope of the compensation, analyzing under different conditions the possible items to be covered by the damage in the two categories of bodily injury and mental injury. With the clarification of the scope, this chapter proceeds to discover the legal basis for each item, the methods of their caculation, and the principles of the ascertainment of the amounts. The limitation of the liability for maritime personal injury and death claims are highlighted in this chapter, with the discussion on both domestic and international legislations. Moreover, with an angle set in Chapter Two, this chapter especially analyzes the scope and amount that can be claimed in cases where occupational injury insurance may be available.The fourth chapter of this article generally discusses "Several Procedural Issues in Maritime Personal Injury and Death Cases", which are signified by their special maritime features. First, this chapter analyzes the maritime jurisdiction of maritime personal injury cases, and also the problems in the application of laws, arising from the judicial explanation exclusively applied to foreign related maritime personal injury and death cases. Secondly, this chapter analyzes the unique maritime claim security system, with its detailed contents and characteristics discussed. At last, this chapter renders an issue quite important in martime personal injury cases, the injury authentication, with the problems in its procedure and standards covered.Chapter Five explores, as it is titled, the possibile approaches of the "Improvement of the Chinese Legal System Regarding Damage for Maritime Personal Injury and Death". This chapter begins its discussion on the recent developments of international legislation concerning maritime personal injury and death, then it examines the current Chinese remedial mechanism, finding the inadequacies in the system and suggesting the establishment of a compulsory passenger insurance mechanism. Based upon the analysis on the flaws in the current domestic legislations, some legislative suggestions are also delivered.