The Allocation Of Burden Of Proof In Maritime Fire Exemptiom

The general principles of burden of proof in civil procedure law, such as the allotment of burden of proof, the exemption of burden of proof, the reversal of burden of proof, the presumption of burden of proof and the standard of burden of proof, also apply in the maritime law. According to this, the research, in this paper, of the burden of proof in the case of fire-exemption in maritime law, is based on the analysis of general principles of burden of proof in Civil Law. Meanwhile, taking into account the specialties of maritime law, I make a comparison of the rules of burden of proof among Hague Rules, Hague-Visby Rules, Hamburg Rules, China Maritime Code, and the relevant rules or laws of the European countries and the U.S.. At last, Several suggestions are given, which include the perfect of law and the measures that could be taken by the consigner. This paper consists of four chapters:In chapterΙ: First, a brief introduction of the development of the burden of proof of fire-exemption is given; then, on the basis of the study of the general theory of proof of burden, I give my suspicion about the impartiality of the present system in this aspect, especially from the aspects of the guide lines of the allocation of burden of proof and justice. In the following, I state the necessity of the existence of this system of the burden of proof of fire-exemption, and the destination of its development.In chapterΠ: I make a comparison study of Hague Rules, Hague-Visby Rules, Hamburg Rules and the relevant rules or laws of the European countries and the U.S.. In chapterШ: I make a detailed study of the rules of burden of proof of fire-exemption in China Maritime Code, and give a further research of the burden of proof borne by the carrier on the basis of the analysis of the cause of fire disaster. In chapter IV: Taking into account of the unfair system of burden of proof of fire-exemption, I give several suggestions: first, the perfect of the China Maritime Code, which , of course, takes a long time; second, several measures that could be taken by the consigner, which include the preventive measures of fire disaster and the search of evidence.Of course, my study in this paper is only an effort, as a maritime law learner, to make the specialists and scholars pay more attention to this problem.