A Study On The Rights Of The Third Parties Against Insurers In Voluntary Marine Liability Insurance

Marine liability insurance is one of marine insurances, which covers the legal liability to the third parties in the event of insured risk. Marine liability insurance, was originally designed to recover the insured's losses. Following the trend of protection for the benefit of the third parties, it shifts to recover losses for the third parties. It has been found that for the sake of protecting the rights of the third parties to claim directly to insurers in the event of insured risk, our legislation needs to provide more systematic and practical regulations on the third parties rights against insurers. And the profits of the insurers should be upheld to balance the interest of both parties. By discussing the related legal theories and introducing the advanced foreign acts, especially the related English laws, this thesis studies on the legal issues from the rights of third parties against insurers in voluntary marine liability insurance, reveals the defects of our law, and trys to give proposal for the perfection of marine insurance law. This thesis is divided into four chapters excluding introduction and conclusion.The first chapter is Overview of Marine Liability Insurance. In this chapter, it introduces the concepts, including the compulsory marine liability insurance and voluntary marine liability insurance, and the history of marine liability insurance. By comparing the two different systems, it indicates the study points-rights of the third parties against insurers in voluntary marine liability insurance.The second chapter is Third Parties in Voluntary Marine Liability Insurance and Their Rights against Insurers. There are two parts in this chapter, including the definition of the third parties, and their rights against insurers. There is no concurrence in the definition of the third parties in academia, and I hope to offer a scientific concept to confirm the subject of the rights. According to the rights against the insurers, the thesis discusses the theory basis, manners, conditions, restrictions and etc. of the rights.The third chapter is Third Parties (Rights against Insurers)Act in UK. In general the legal issues in voluntary marine liability insurance are within the scope of national law. If we are willing to perfect our law, we should learn experiences from foreign laws. Third Parties (Rights against Insurers)Act 2010 was enacted in March 25th,2010 to substitute for Third Parties (Rights against Insurers)Act 1930. Since UK has a well developed legal system in marine insurance and the act is the latest legislative result, it is an essential reference to our legal system.The fourth chapter is the Existing Legal Rules in China and the Proposal for Perfecting Our Laws. Provided that the comparsion and analysis of the related foreign legal rules, it reveals the defects of our existing legal rules and tries to provide the targeted solutions.