The Impact Of The Misconduct Of Salvors To Salvage

Salvage at sea is a particular legal system with a long history in maritime law. Where the salvage succeeds, the law enables the salvor to be remunerated by a reward for encouraging his hardy and careful effort. But during the salvage operation, the misconduct of the salvor could be found in many cases. If the salvors, in the marine salvage, exercise a wrongful act or negligence, such misconduct will result in the forfeiture or diminution of the salvage reward which the salvors could have got. With a view to encouraging the volunteer to render services to maritime property in peril at sea, the law always put emphasis on protecting the salvor's reward and there is few principles of law relating to the duties of the salvor. Nowadays, with the increasing value of ship and other properties at sea, the issue of how to penalize the misconduct and how to decide the salvage reward attracts more and more concern.It is necessary to do some research, which will help to the perfection of the legal system of marine salvage, about the issue of how to decide the salvage, settle the disputes, balance the interest between the salvor and the salvee in case of the salvor's misconduct. Although the issue of how to deal with the salvor's misconduct is merely an aspect which will be taken into consideration while deciding the salvage reward, it is of significance to probe into the relevant legal issues. And how to decide the salvage reward is the core in the field of marine salvage, and the attitude towards salvor's misconduct reflects the law's value judgement. Studying the development of the law's standpoint will contribute to the furtherance of our understanding about the legal system of salvage. Moreover, there is not enough theoretical research has been performed on the issues, and in many cases, the law's judgements differ. Indeed as will be seen below many questions remain either unanswered or answered in an unsatisfactory manner. In view of all these mentioned-above, this paper, on the basis of an analysis of the international convention, relevant cases of England and America and the maritime law of our state, make some discussion about the salvor's duties and liabilities, and analyzes the extent to which the misconduct of the salvors influences the salvage reward. The dissertation is composed of four parts as follows:Part One, including chapter one and chapter two, briefly introduce the system...