A Study On The Procedure Of Limitation Of Liability For Maritime Claims In China

Limitation of liability for maritime claims is a special legal system which is different from the general damage in civil law legal system. The procedures of limitation of liability for maritime claims provide procedural guarantees for the implementation of the limitation of liability for maritime claims. However, current Chinese law only provides the procedure for constitution of limitation fund for maritime claims, procedure for registration and repayment of debts instead of a complete procedure about limitation of liability for maritime claims, which leads to, in some extent, some of the issues of judicial practice has no legal basis and even the referee contradictory phenomena.In this paper, based on the analysis of the limitation of liability for maritime claims procedures to find the legislative flaw and to put forward the corresponding revision proposal by the methods of the historical analysis, empirical analysis, comparative analysis and other methods. Excluding preface and conclusion, the paper consists of four chapters with the main content of each as follows:Chapter1-Summary introduction of the procedure of limitation of liability for maritime claims. This chapter provides a brief overview of international conventions, as well as our maritime limitation of liability procedures and point out briefly legislation insufficiency of the procedures of limitation of liability for maritime claims in China.Chapter2-Procedure for constitution of limitation fund for maritime claims. This chapter focuses on the relationship of the applying for liability limitation in accordance with law and applying to a maritime court for constitution of the limitation fund for maritime claims. In China, the person liable can choose whether or not to apply for constitution of the limitation fund for maritime claims. However, applying for constitution of the limitation fund is more beneficial. At the same time, to make the appropriate amendments by analyzing on some problems existing in the procedure for the constitution of limitation fund.Chapter3-Procedure for registration. The procedure for registration plays an important role, however applying for registration of their relevant to the maritime accident with filing objection in written exist time overlapping, which needs to improve. At the same time, the author suggest, after procedure for registration, the court can make public to the registered creditors and person liable by analyzing on some problems existing in the procedure for the constitution of limitation fund or any interested person applying.Chapter4-Procedure for bring an action to confirm creditors’rights and repayment of debts. Author reviews of lawsuit system of the Court of the first instance is final, but with the introduction of "other creditors participate in the lawsuit system" can resolve the certain inadequacies of the action to confirm creditors’right. Under the existing legal framework, whether the person liable lost the right to limit his liability for loss of hearing shall be separate from the lawsuit, and the lawsuit allows an appeal. When to modify the special maritime procedure law of the people’s republic of China in the future, it should create the lawsuit to confirm the limitation of liability for maritime claims. In addition, when to judge the person liable whether or not has the right to limit his liability should be strictly in accordance with the statutory limits of liability loss of condition. Un-seaworthiness of the vessel will not necessarily lead to the person liable lose the right to limit his liability.