Analysis Of The International Maritime Competition Regulation

International shipping market is such a special area that the application of competition law in this area has its specific characteristics. Many countries, especially the developed ones, make some specific rules to regulate the international shipping competition and some apparently monopoly activities are exempted from the anti-trust laws which are to be applicable to any activities of a monopoly nature. The author reviews the legal system for international shipping industry in America and Europe and then explores the rationale for the legislation and continuing existence of those regulations. At the end of this dissertation, the author tries to discuss the similar problem in China and put forward some constructive suggestions to establish our legal system of international shipping regulation.This dissertation is composed of five parts. Firstly, it concerns the basic theory of international shipping regulation, such as the goal of the law, the affirming principles and the economic analysis of Competition Law, in order to set up the theoretical basis for and obtain a whole picture of the following specific legal system of international shipping regulation. This part focuses on the basic goal and political aim of the competition law, the reasonable principles and the theory of efficient competition, all of which underlie the formation of the special rules in the field of international shipping competition.Secondly, it reviews the history of international shipping regulation and concentrates the observation on the typical situation in America and Europe and takes the situation in Japan, Australia, and Taiwan area as an supplemental. This part tries to describe the circumstance of the whole international shipping regulation and retrospect the long history as well.Thirdly, it observes and introduces the specific legal systems of international shipping regulation in America and Europe and makes a comparison between them. Generally, both of them take the international shipping market as a special situation and set exemption conditionally from the Competition Law, but as far as theparticular subject, scope, condition, extent and mode is concerned, both legal systems differs from each other and exemptions in America seem more strict than that in Europe.Fourthly, it, on the basis of the part one and concerned analyses, points out that the reason why the state give a lot of exemptions to the international shipping agreement from competition regulation is not to encourage the out-of-order competition, but to oppose extreme monopoly instead of comparative monopoly. This part, as the main point of the dissertation, discloses that the goal of the Competition is to be of the most benefit to the consumers, which limits to only the domestic consumer rather than the general consumers. So in the field of international shipping, the government has to take the domestic producer's interests into consideration and give exemptions to them.Fifthly, it prospects the future of international shipping regulation and forecasts the potential legal systems thereof in China. In author's opinion, whether to preserve or abolish the exemption from international shipping regulation depends on the nation's political interests and the benefits of domestic consumers. At the end of this article, author proposes the goal of Chinese International Shipping Regulation and designs the specific legal frame in details.