On The Application To The Principle Of Proximate Cause In Maritime Insurance In China

The Principle of proximate cause(hereinafter referred to as the "Principle") is one of the basic legal principles in the Marine Insurance Law, but there are some disputes about the meaning of the principle, the application of the principle, whether the principle is applicable, how to determine the proximate cause and burden of proof in the practice of Marine Insurance Law in China. This paper tries to introduce the general aspects of the application of the principle in China's marine insurance based on the definition of concept of the principle, the applicable basis of the principle, and the rules for clarifying the proximate cause.In the first, second and third parts, the author explains what the proximate cause and the principle are in three aspects of origin and development of proximate cause, the connection and difference between general causality and legal causality, the proximate cause, as a core concept of the theory of legal causality in common law system.In part four, the author explains the theory of determining legal causality in Marine Insurance Laws in other countries, makes clear the applicable scope of the principle in Marine Insurance, and then demonstrates the basis of the application of the principle in China's Marine Insurance Law and the situation of the application of the principle and the meaning of strengthening its application.In part five and six, the article gives the answer to the question of how to determine the proximate cause in China's Marine Insurance. The author first introduces the theories of determining the proximate cause in our academia at present, and then analyzes their advantages and disadvantages respectively. Later, the author preferred methods of determining the proximate cause on the basis of the predecessors' gain and loss.Finally, this paper comes to the conclusion that the principle should be established in China's legislations explicitly, the rules of determining the proximate cause should be further unified in the academic discussion and the application of the principle in judicial practice should be strengthened in the light of actual conditions.