A Study On Several Legal Problems Of Maritime Towing

As an offshore operation form, sea towage occupies an important position in marine transportation. However, because of the short history, there is no international treaty or international practice in the sea towage fields. And only a few articles of law on sea towage can be found in some foreign countries’domestic maritime legislation. Maritime Law in China makes the regulation on sea towage in ten provisions, but still do not form a complete legal system. With the development of the ocean, sea towage has a great opportunity to develop, and then disputes caused by towage must increase. So it is necessary to do a complete research into several issues on sea towage.This thesis, basing on the domestic laws, combining with the judicial practice in China and other countries, referring to some famous standard contract for sea towage in the world, and starting from two perspectives of the theatrical analysis and social practice, does a complete research into the several issues on sea towage, for example the liability for damage compensation, exemption clause and standard contract for sea towage. Author hopes to provide some train of thoughts in settling the dispute occurring during sea towage.This thesis is divided into four charters. The first charter describes the sea towage’s basic conditions, for example history, features and legal character, then author puts forward his opinions about the legal character and the application of law. Finally, author compares the contract of sea towage with contract of carriage of goods by sea, salvage contract, in the hope of avoiding the confusion in the theory and practice.Because the undertaking of the liability for damage compensation, the validity of exemption clause are related closely with the major rights and obligations of the tug owner and tow party, it is necessary to discuss the major rights of the tug owner and tow party. The chapter two mainly discusses these following questions, for example the duty of seaworthy of the tug owner and tow party, the lien of the tug owner, termination right of the contract and so on. Author defines the nature of the duty of seaworthy of the tug owner and tow party and hopes to define the responsibility of the tug owner and tow party.The third chapter discusses the liability for damage compensation, aiming to give the help to the settling of the dispute about the liability for damage compensation. This chapter is divided into two parts; the first part describes the division of the liability for damage compensation, and discusses the liability of the ships collision during sea towage. The second part discusses what influence of limitation of liability for maritime claim on sea towage in two aspects:subject of limitation of liability for maritime claim during sea towage (including ships and people) and calculation of the limitation of liability for maritime claim, and put forward my opinions about these questions.Chapter four discusses the standard contract for sea towage. In this part, author elaborates the validity of exemption clause in the standard contract for sea towage from the two aspects of judicial practices and laws in China and foreign countries, gives his comments on the exemption in United Kingdom Standard Condition for Towage and Other Services and in "TOWCON", finally compares the Contract for Sea Towage by China Towing Company and United Kingdom Standard Condition for Towage and Other Services.