The Marine Seizure Of The Ship Legal Issues

Arrest of ship is very important in Maritime law. It is often used after maritime disputes occur. Law problems are complicated due to arrest of ship. What's more, the common and the civil law system have not agreed on the nature of arrest.Fortunately, International Convention on Arrest of Ship 1999 had passed at the end of last century. It is a great possibility to enter into the convention for China. So there is a great value to study the law issues about arrest of ship presently.My dissertation is divided 5 parts with 39 thousand words.The first part begins with introduction about basic theories of the arrest. By construing the words of some international conventions, we deduce the notion and characters of the ship. Bring up with the nature of arrest in china law first, then outline the characters of arrest of ship, which is the typical action in rem compared with the theory of action in rem in Britain and U.S.A and Marewa Injunction. Finally, summing up the function of arrest of ship in solving maritime disputes explains why the rule of arrest does exist.The second part talks about new change in International Convention on Arrest of Ship 1999 compared with International Convention on Arrest of Ship 1952. The different of claims take the major role in this part. Author analyzes the law relationship about arrest and enumerates the causes causing arrest of ship.The third part. Combining international convention on arrest of ship and the reality of present, author clarifies two problems. One is the sphere of ship that can be arrested because of maritime claims. The ship are guilty ship, sister ship and the associated ship. The other is material and formal conditions for court that have to meet in applying arrest of ship. The material ones include that claimant do have claim ,that the person do be liable for the claim, that ship can be permitted to be arrested, that it is emergent and will be met great loss if not to arrest a ship and that claim can be accepted by court according to statutes of limitation. Formal conditions are letter ofappliance, proofs, appliance fee and security for wrongful arrest.The fourth part introduces some key procedures during the arrest of ship. One is how to decide the court who has the power to arrest a ship. The problem is analyzed in three phases, pre-proceeding, in-proceeding, in-arbitration. The second issue is the key. Author does want to verify that it is reasonable that one court has the power to arrest a ship to secure the future judge or the letter of arbitration, while the jurisdiction is going on the other court esp. the two courts lie in two countries. The other is security. Gaining reasonable security to cover the damages is the major aim of arrest. In order to analyze security, author considers it from 4 sides, deciding the amount of security, checking the items of security, maintaining and refunding the security. Law meaning are listed after providing security at the end of this part.In the last part, author studies four problems in china present law, and brings forward with the probable suggestion of settlement in view of making china law perfect. First is about the anti-security provided for maybe wrongful arrest. Author verifies that it is unfair to carry out most rigid request for anti-security causes esp. the claim for the injured and the dead, for wages and welfare etc. So it is necessary that china outline the exception in law in order to protect the lawful interests. The second is how to decide wrongful arrest or unjust arrest and what the security for wrongful arrest covers. The third attracts eyes on the interests of person who is liable for the claim. Author hopes to set up a hearing procedure alike west countries. On the hearing, each party can provides their evidences and persuades the judge to protect lawful interest respectively. The last one is that arrester should has privileged right comparing the ordinary creditors. Only thus, it is fair for arrestor and embodies the positive spirit.