The Legal Status Of Masters In Maritime Law And Correlative Legislative Proposals

Marine transportation, which is taken by almost all the countries in the world, is an old marine practice. For example, 46% of goods of our country are transported by waterage. A master is the chief commander and plays a really great role in this activity. But the research in our country on this subject doesn't catch up with its development trend. People have to quote other interrelated laws and regulations when there are no appropriate provisions in Maritime Code of People's Republic of China (hereinafter to be referred as Maritime Code) which causes real difficulties in practice. This problem needs to be solved urgently, so this paper emerges. Taking the masters who are absolutely necessary under the transportation process in Maritime Code as the object of this thesis, it studies the rights, obligations and legal liabilities of the masters so as to find out their special legal status. The author uses all the means available to make all the aspects in which masters participate involved in this thesis for this research is really meaningful. The masters'legal status is not only concerned to the completion of the whole navigation duty, but also to the security of the goods and staffs and to the protection of the marine environment. The accomplishment of this thesis really sheds light on these problems.Except the introduction, this thesis consists of 6 parts. Part 1 is the recommendation of this paper. It studies the concepts of the so-called masters and the complicate relationships between the masters and other transportation parties such as the ship owner, the tenant and the sailors as well.Part 2 discusses the masters'legal status in maritime transportation contracts. The rights and obligations of the masters can be divided into two groups, namely the rights and obligations in the sailing of the ship and the rights and obligations in the dealing of the goods. The rights in this situation include the right of hiring and firing the sailors, the right of sailing, the right of reasonable diversion privilege, the right of claim for fare and such kind of correlative charges, the right of line, the right of disposal, the right of defense, and the rights in contract for carriage of passengers by sea. The masters should also commit some obligations such as aeropause, support and quick dispatch, no illegal diversion privilege, and taking good care of the loading and stowage of the goods and so on. This part also expounds the legal liabilities which are in connection with the masters and under the jurisdiction of different situations.Part 3 is about the masters'legal status in charter parties which include Time Charter Party, Voyage Charter Party and Demise Charter. The masters have the rights in charter parties like the right to issue the bill of lading, to make the goods on-carriage or unloaded ashore, to reject the illegal last voyage, to transfer the goods, to refuse the illegal goods and to lodge the infringement action only for economic losses. And the obligations such as listening to the tenant, issuing the bill of lading with the very good care, informing the damage and short landing of the goods, contacting the owner of the goods promptly, handling the goods under the charge of its'owner, supervising the sailors'work of shipping, delivering, handing over the fare and checking the shipping boats are involved in charter parties.Part 4 probes the masters'legal status in marine salvage. The rights and obligations discussed in this part contain the rights to sign the salvage contract, to claim the rewards, to limit the liability for damages, and the obligations of saving the lives of human beings, of meeting the salvation callings, and etc. Some of the topics discussed in this part touched upon some controversial problems in academic circles. The author studies these problems thoroughly and carefully so as to arrive at his own conclusions. Part 5 is on the rights and obligations which are not mentioned in the above parts. The masters'rights mentioned in this part are those in outer porters, under the public laws, and in marine dispute solution process. The part also talks about the master'obligations in emergencies, for instance: when the shipping boat is about to stranded grounded sunk or capsized, when the boat is on fire, when there is ship collision, and when the boat is contribute to the pollution. This part helps to make the thesis more completed.Part 6 is the conclusion of this thesis. After the studies mentioned above, the author tables some own proposals in the chapter. The proposals on the completion of the active laws and regulations, on the urgent appeal for the promulgation of Seafarer Act, and on the modification of the details of Maritime Code are all involved in this chapter. They are the author's final acquisition through drawing the whole paper. This thesis tries very hard to find out the special legal status of the masters from many points of view, almost covering all the aspects in which the masters take part in marine transportation. By taking the different ways of doing in two big legal systems in comparison, by analyzing the regulations of international treaties and our Maritime Code, and by discussing a lots of cases, the thesis points out the limitations of the laws and regulations of our country at the present stage so as to be of some help to their completion and publishing. The author also hopes to help solve the disputes in practice and fill in the gap in the research of the masters through writing this thesis. Because of the length of the paper and the author's own level, there must be faults and mistakes in this paper. The author only has a hope that his crude remarks may draw forth by abler people and more researchers to pay close attention to the subject by doing all of these. Comments are requested, so the paper can be perfected in the future.