Study Of The Liability Of Ship Managers And Insurance Issues

As a new corporate body, the third party ship management companies have a deep development in the last decades. The history of ship management industry is not very long, but the new body attracts more and more ship owners' attentions in developed shipping countries. In addition, it plays a more and more important role in improving the flexibility of ship operation, reducing the cost of ship running, improving the service standard and so on.Contrary to the maturity development in practice, the legal liability of ship manager has not been well defined in law. At present, the international convention and trade agreement focus on the technology and management standard, not the legal status or liability of ship managers. About the theoretical research of the ship manager, most papers emphasize on the strategy of operation and management, not involve its legal liability.Applying the basic civil law theories and using the achievement of foreign laws as reference, the author makes the research on the civil legal liability of ship manager. There are three chapters in the thesis, including the current situation of ship management system, the civil legal liability and the insurance.In chapter one the author firstly introduces the ISM code and ISMA code, which have the important influence in the industry. Then, there are the administration laws and regulations in our countries. After that, the author discusses the application of law.In chapter two the author mainly deals with the civil legal liability of ship manager. The topic is researched in three respects: the liability for breach of contract, liability for tort and liability of fault in negotiating contract. The agency relationship between the ship manager and ship owner is clear, so the author stresses the relationship between the ship manager and the third party. Besidesapplying the basic agency theories, the author studies the ship manager's liability for breach of contract in practice.In the part of tort liability, it mainly discusses the liability of ship manager in ship collision, ship pollution and limitation of liability. On the basis of the civil law theories and the international convention, foreign law and cases, the author attempts to find out the responsibility of ship manager and his limitation of liability in damages caused by tort.Fault in negotiating contract differs from breach of contract and tort, which is an independent claim. When contracting with the third party, ship manager is an agent. So the main point of this part is the liability caused by unauthorized agency.Insurance is very important for ship manager. Insured interest is the main issue in chapter three. The author discusses the insured interest of ship manager in ship and liability, and finds out the protection and limitation of the liability insurance for ship manager.