Arrest Of Ships System A Number Of Legal Research

Arrest of ship, as an important procedure to solve maritime disputes, and the base for a court to exercise jurisdiction as well, is greatly concerned by the shipping and law field. The legal system of ship arrest rules is at the forefront area and occupies an important status in the maritime procedure law, which makes the research of ship arrest has both theoretical and practical meanings as well.In China, it is not a long time from this special maritime judicial system originated and then developed. The Regulation for Arrest of Ship in 1986 acts as an important signal of forming such a system, which has a comprehensive provisions on preservation of maritime claim, scope of arresting ship, service and execution etc. On 25 December 1999, Maritime Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter called as the Maritime Procedure Law) was adopted with a dependent chapter on maritime security, in which there is a chapter to stipulate arrest of ship and ship auction. This can be regarded as the landmark of the ship-arresting system.Taking the provisions of Maritime Procedure Law as starting point, against the background of the new development in international conventions and foreign countries' domestic law, comprehensively applying such argument skills as comparison, illustration, this article holds a superficial discussion on some disputable issues, and puts forward author's own opinion on such issues, with an anticipation to perfect our country's ship-arresting system. In short, though the theoretical research of arrest of ship in China is not so perfect, the legislation action isn't prevented anyhow.The article has four chapters.In chapter 1, according to the different natures of arrest of ship in the Common Law and the Continental Law, author analyzes the advantages and disadvantages respectively. Combined the truth of our country and the new development, author illustrates the rationality of the regulations on nature of arrest of ship in our country. In China, arrest of ship belongs to preservation ofmaritime claims, though it is greatly influenced by relevant rules of the international conventions and those of action in rem in common law countries. Furthermore, it differs from common property preservation in civil procedure law of PRC;In chapter 2, there is a discussion on scope of arrest of ship. Owing to the special subject matter -ship, the scope of ship arrest has presented many difficulties in judicial practice. Especially on sister ships and ships with convenient flags. Meanwhile, referring to the international conventions and new phenomena in world shipping, author presents some advices for legislation, such as rules on slots charter;In chapter 3, concentrating on the relationship between ship arrest and maritime jurisdiction, author does some studies on questions arising from exercising jurisdiction during maritime procedure. Especially, under the situation of China's entry of WTO, in order to protect either parties of the dispute and meet the international requirements actually, our country's maritime courts shall apply the non-convenient court principle to limit the maritime jurisdiction properly;In chapter 4, author eyes on several disputable issues in practice. According to the relevant law and regulations relating to arrest of ship in South Africa, author tries to find approaches for our state-owned shipowners to avoid unreasonable risks. At last, author uses a latest case to illustrate the current situation of arrest of ship by mistake, and puts forward to her own opinion on criterion of wrong arresting ship.