Study On The Liability For Damage Compensation During Sea Towage

Sea towage faces the same sea perils as other marine services. The special operating mode makes its performance more risky, which endangers lives and properties at sea as well. Therefore, it is vital to clarify the rules of determining and dividing liabilities so that we can settle disputes in time, increase the safety of towage and promote the development of sea towage. However, the stipulations about towage in most countries are rather limited, scholars in this area haven't reached a consensus on its nature and there are no uniform rights and obligations in the standard contracts used in practice, which all contribute to the difficulty of ascertaining the liabilities for the damage compensation. By analyzing the stipulations and cases of different countries, related international conventions and standard contract forms used in towage practice, the thesis aims to build the basic legal principles for determining the liability for damage compensation during sea towage and provide some train of thoughts in settling the disputes occurring during sea towage.First, the thesis states that sea towage is a special service and contract of towage is a special type of contract by analyzing nature of the sea towage from its traits, its differences from similar services, and opinions of different countries. Second, the thesis discusses about the basic obligations of tug and tow and points out that making tug/tow seaworthy is a compulsory obligation. This part serves as the basis for the liabilities. In the third part, the liability of breach of contract and the liability of tort are discussed separately. Fault principle is applicable to breach of contract and the principle of control is only used for judging the facts. As to tort, different rules are applicable to ordinary tort, collision and oil damage. In the forth part, the thesis insists that only if the tugs/tows are movable equipments working at sea regularly, they should be allowed to limit their liability. The accumulation of tonnage of tug and tow can only be applied when both tug and tow have faults and they commit joint tort. The exemption clause in sea towage contract is only binding on the contractual parties, but not binding on the third party. The validity of the clause should be tested by the clause itself, the sea towage contract, the related laws and public policies. Article 162 in Chinese Maritime Law is not the source of validity for exemption clause.