Research On The Legal Responsibility Of Compulsory Wreck Removal

It has been a long time since the national statute lacks a high-efficient system for dealing with the compulsory wreck removal.Apart from that,the statutes of different levels concerning this issue are not set forth in a consistent way.Therefore,it has become a knotty problem for the maritime administration to handle the compulsory wreck removal,which will obviously jeopardize the security of the sea and other water arrears for navigation,and meanwhile,cause more serious transportation accidents and environmental pollution.Under the circumstance that transportation by sea has played more and more important role in the international trade,it has become an imperative issue to set up an appropriate system solving the above-mentioned problem.Among other things,to pitch the national statute in a harmonized way,clarify the status and corresponding responsibilities of each party involved in and dig out an efficient method to fulfill the compensation for all costs and expenses arisen from the compulsory wreck removal are the key issues.This article is based on numerous materials that were collected from Chinese maritime authorities.Through hard researching work to these materials,the author epitomizes the main problems of the compulsory wreck removal as follows:Who are responsible for the compulsory wreck removal;in which order they take the responsibility;and whether they can enjoy the Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims or not;the relationship among the parties on the compulsory wreck removal;the law nature of the expenditures of the compulsory wreck removal;the priority of the expenditures of the compulsory wreck removal.Nowadays,there were no determinations to the problems mentioned above in Chinese maritime law field,and some problems even got contradictory answers in judicial practices.In order to resolve the above questions,the author firstly comparatively analyzes the conventions and foreign national laws on the compulsory wreck removal,and then answers these questions in Chinese law environment by referring the conventions and foreign national laws on the compulsory wreck removal.In this article,the author argues that,when Chinese lawmakers constitute the new legislations of the compulsory wreck removal,they should pay more attention to the practices thereof,and at international trend of this subject.