Research On Legal Issues Of Ownership Of The Lessor In Ship Sale And Leaseback

In recent years,sales and leaseback,as a new type of ship finance leasing,has taken an increasing proportion in shipping finance.In particular,the benefit of shipping enterprises has been affected by the COVID-19 recently,and the use of fixed assets financing has become an important means to alleviate the financial pressure,which has brought about an explosive growth in the sale and leaseback transactions of ships.As a result of the broadness of this business in Asia,in 2020,a standard contract for sale and leaseback of ships was formulated by BIMCO,to facilitate the use of shipowners and ship finance leasing companies.In sharp contrast,the absence and lag of legislation in the field of sale-leaseback in China leads to the non-standard sale and leaseback transactions in practice.However,it is praiseworthy that after the promulgation of the Civil Code,contracts with guarantee functions such as financial lease contracts are included in the category of guarantee contracts,and the validity of ownership registration of lessor is stipulated,which is of great practical significance for the development of sale and leaseback.Therefore,if the sale and leaseback contract is identified as an atypical guarantee contract,can the ownership of the lessor that plays the guarantee function be identified as an atypical guarantee real right? How to register the real right of atypical security in our country and the issue of registration effectiveness? It is a controversial issue in practice.The paper is divided into three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.The body includes four chapters:The first chapter is “overview of ownership of the lessor in ship sale and leaseback”.Starting from the history,function and concept of ship sale and leaseback,this chapter analyzes the nature of ship sale and leaseback contract,discusses the reasons why the lessor is the owner of the ship,summarizes the connotation of lessor’s ownership of the ship,and elaborates the research significance of the ownership of lessor.Chapter two is “nature of ownership of the lessor in ship sale and leaseback”.This chapter introduces the basic theory of atypical guarantee in China,discusses the reasons why the ownership of the shipowner is identified as atypical security real right,and summarizes the significance of the ownership of the shipowner is identified as atypical security real right through the analysis of the disputes on the nature of the ownership of the shipowner.Chapter three is “registration of ownership of the lessor in ship sale and leaseback”.This chapter reviews the current legislation and practice of the ownership registration of sale-leaseback ships in China,analyzes the existing problems in China’s ship registration system,and discusses the reform path of the ownership registration of sale-leaseback shipowners in China based on the advanced practice of the ownership registration of sale-leaseback shipowners in the world.Chapter four is “the registration effect of ownership of the lessor in ship sale and leaseback”.According to “civil code” in this chapter about the lessor’s effect of the ownership registration,combined with the provisions of the property law system and the special regime of maritime law,explain the extent to which the unregistered ownership of the lessor shall not be against third parties,as well as the ownership of the lessor effect problem in the bankruptcy procedure,to determine the effectiveness of the ownership of the lessor against other ship realty.