Study On Procedural Issues About Limitation Of Liability For Maritime Claims

The limitation of liability for maritime claims system refers tothat when there is serious injury to a third party or damage to propertycaused by a grave average, the party causing the damage have the privilegeto limit his compensation liability to a certain extent according to theprovisions of relevant laws, which is an unique and important legal systemin maritime law and is essential to protect and promote the stabledevelopment of the shipping industry. With the establishment andimplementation of the PRC Maritime Code and the other related laws, thelimitation of liability for maritime claims system is growing mature stepby step in provisions on substantial law and a basic system is established.However, there are many deficiencies in its procedures, and the mostobvious point is that the Special Procedural Code for Maritime Litigationonly prescribes on the establishment of limitation of fund for maritimecompensation; nevertheless, the establishment of the fund itself doesn'tinvolving the issue on whether the person liable will ultimately enjoythe right for limitation of liability. Therefore, there is in short ofprocedural rules if a party brings a lawsuit to the court. Due to theconflicts between the substantive law and the procedure law as well asthe defects of the procedure law itself, the substantial rights of theparties are not ensured by the procedure rules, which are quite disputedin maritime trial practice and cause great discrepancies in judicialpractice. With the development of the maritime trial practice and the continual emergence of related cases, it is especially urgent to solvethe procedure problem. This paper introduces the general aspects oflimitation of liability and analyzes the current legal provisionsregarding limitation liability in China, probes the reasons why there areno special provisions of limited liability for maritime compensation, andthen analyzes those reasons in detail on whether they can hold water. Afterdiscussing the problems resulted from the conflicts between thesubstantive law and the procedure law as well as the defects of theprocedure law itself, the paper elaborates on the purpose and legal effectof limitation of liability in accordance with relevant internationalconventions and then discusses on the roots of the problems mentionedabove, and therefore on the grounds of analysis and reference of thecorresponding legal provisions of other countries and districts, thepaper puts forward certain suggestions on perfecting the procedure forlimitation of liability for maritime claims of China. In the end, by thereference of litigation right theory, this paper analyzes and points outthat review on whether the liable party enjoy the privilege on limitedliability could be an independent litigation, and thereafter, this paperbrings forward some suggestions on improving the limited liability formaritime compensation by analyzing the time limit to bring such a lawsuit,the issue of jurisdiction, the registration and examination on limitationof liability for the judges, and the establishment and distribution oflimited fund for maritime compensation.