Study On The Legal Nature Of Maritime Lien

As one of the most characteristic legal institutions of maritime law, maritime lien is always one of the most compelling topics theoretically and practically. Although many countries have specific regulations on maritime lien, the legal nature of maritime lien is not unified. In theory, the arguments about the legal nature of maritime lien have never stopped. Only ensured the legal nature of maritime lien, people can understand different legal provisions. In order to avoid the conflicts in international private laws and further to solve the doubt in the theory and practice, based on "Maritime Code", this paper has analyzed the concept and features of maritime lien and summed up all kinds of legislation and theoretical divergence. Using the method of comparative analysis and system analysis method, this paper concludes that the maritime lien is a legal procedural right, and puts forward its opinion and legislative proposals.The first part of this paper has mainly summarized the basic connotation of the maritime lien and analyzed its concept and features. Although the "Maritime Code" has deified the concept of the maritime lien, it has not specified the legal nature of maritime lien. This has caused some difficulty in positioning the legal nature of maritime lien.The second part of this paper has summarized the local or overseas divergence about the legal nature of maritime lien from the perspective of legislation and theory. Civil law and Common law have different provisions. Even among the same law system, different countries also have different provisions. There are substantive rights theory and procedural rights theory on the legal nature of maritime lien. The substantive rights theory can be divided into real right theory and claim rights theory.The third part of this paper has described the author's ideas about the legal nature of maritime law. The real rights theory, claim rights theory,debt real rights theory have desirable places, but these theories haven't mastered the legal nature of maritime lien truly. Therefore, from the perspective of its essence, source, system, implementation approaches, the conflicts in international private laws and legislative system, the author comes to the conclusion that the maritime lien is a legal procedural right.The fourth part of this paper has put some suggestions for the design of maritime lien. The author believes that it will be more precise to call "maritime lien". At the same time, learning from the law of enterprise bankruptcy, the author thinks the provisions of maritime can be stipulated in relevant procedure law.