Salvage Compensation Legal Issues

Salvage at sea is a particular legal system in maritime law, as compared to other laws. This system purports to encourage people to salvage vessels, cargoes on board and lives in the perils of the sea so that the safety of navigation can be maintained. Considering gargantuan risks occurring at sea, the law entitles salvation to salvage reward, which will compensate for the out-of-pocket expenses of vessels and equipment. It not only encourages people to salvage vessels, cargoes and/or lives in distress, but also protects the salvaged property from being possessed by salvors illegally.Along with the rapid development of sea transportation, the concept of risk at sea also changed, and the property at sea became more complicated and various. So the legal system about salvage at sea has changed. For the above reason, we should take relevant measures to adapt to the development. The author considers the core of legal system of salvage at sea is about the reward system for salvage. What's more, in practice, most of litigations on salvage are due to reward for salvage. So, the author thinks it is necessary to discuss the relevant legal issues about reward for salvage. The paper is divided into four chapters:Chapter one discusses the basic theory of salvage reward. Salvage reward means the payment the salvation will obtain if he saves the vessels in distress on navigable waters. But with the development of the salvage law, the connotation of this concept has been changed. Starting with the definition of salvage reward, chapter one analyzes and compares the provisions about salvage reward in some relative law and international agreement as well as the relative problems existing in the Maritime Code of China. Aiming at the dispute on the legal characteristics of salvage at sea, this chapter discusses the legal characteristics of salvage reward and analyses the structure of legal relation of salvage reward.It is the most difficult and complicated to decide the amount of salvage reward. Although the salvage cases are different from one another, the principle and the criterion are uniform. In chapter two, the article discusses the basic principle -"no cure, no pay" and other principles, which are used to fix the amount of the salvage reward, and probes the problem of how to evaluate the salvage reward.Based on the analysis in chapter two, Chapter three further illustrates the limitation of the "no cure, no pay" principle. The system of special compensation, which was born at the demand of new situation of the world shipping market breaks through the traditional "no cure, no pay" principle to some extent and solves some conflicts and problems in practice. The article discusses the system of special compensation in an all-round way and analyzesthe influence of the special compensation in general and marine insurance.The fourth chapter is about the right and duties of relevant parties on salvage reward. After the determination of salvage relationship between both parties, it is most easily occurred and difficulty solved problems in practice regarding how to realize the reward claim right of salvors. In practice, after the completion of salvage, the salvagee always requires to deduce or refuse to pay reward due to various reason, or intimely receives the salvaged properties. This undoubtedly brings risks of salvors. In practice, it also often occurred that the damage to salvagee was caused by salvor due to his delinquency. Under the condition, how to balance the interest of both parties on salvage? To answer the above two issues, the author discusses the salvor has right of claim for reward and the lien and security rights for the salvaged property. And the author put forward his own viewpoints and suggestions on the delinquency duty and compensation limit of salvor.