Thinking Of A Number Of Issues Under The Jurisdiction Of Foreign Maritime Litigation And Arrest Of Ships System

Maritime action is a special litigation, in which foreign-related maritime jurisdiction occupies an important position with its comprehensive and complex contents. Maritime jurisdiction is the precondition of handling maritime cases in relation to foreign-related affairs. It not only influences the result of each case, but also affects the relationships between countries. Arrest of ships, as an important measure to settle maritime disputes, provides reliable security for the claimers as well as essential evidence for courts to get jurisdiction. The principle that obtain maritime jurisdiction though arresting ship is accepted by international conventions and the legislation of most marine countries. It becomes the most characteristic jurisdiction system in maritime actions concerning foreign-related matters.The full text divides into 4 chapters all together.The first chapter involves the concept, meaning and characteristic of maritime jurisdiction concerning foreign-related affairs. It also comments on various principles of fixing maritime jurisdiction, meanwhile taking some cases as example.According to the different natures of arrest of ships in the common law and the continental law, chapter 2 analyzes their advantages and disadvantages respectively. The system of arrest of ships in common law countries is tightly connected with action in rem, which, as an old but lively law system, plays a very important role in maritime lawsuits, and has influenced the civil law countries as well. As a kind of methods to obtain security, the system of arrest of ships in civil law countries is still playing an important role because of its logic and practicability. Though there are many differences in the theory and practice of arrest of ships between the two law systems, international conventions have made positive contributions to the unity of various systems.Chapter 3 concentrates on the relationship between arrest of ships and maritime jurisdiction. The jurisdiction concerning arrest of ships includes procedure jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of the whole case. The procedure jurisdiction means when a party applies to arrest a ship, which court has right to accept it and judge whether the application is permitted, and which court has right to perform the arrest. The procedure jurisdiction complies with the principle of regional jurisdiction and independent jurisdiction. The court, which performs arrest will, therefore achieves the jurisdiction of the whole case. This principle is called Jurisdiction of Arrest of Ships, which ensures the effective enforcement of judgments. Meanwhile this means also brings convenience to the parties and becomes an instrument of forum shopping, even be used to evade law. The last part of the chapter expresses thatJurisdiction of Arrest of Ships should be restricted by the principle of Forum non-convenience.In chapter 4, there are some analyses about the legislation and practice of arrest of ships in our country. The regime of arrest of ships in China bases on international conventions and the maritime judicial practice in other countries, which has been defined as preservation of maritime claims. It's a basically integrated regime of China's characteristics. Especially, under the situation of China's entry of WTO, in order to protect either parties of the dispute and meet the international requirements actually, our maritime courts shall apply the principle of Forum non-convenience to limit the maritime jurisdiction properly.