Crew Labor Contract Law Study

Seaman is a special group in society. Their work is filled with technique, risk and loneliness. It is significant for promoting the industry of ocean shipping to enhance the protection of seaman's right. However, the law on the service contract of seaman is not perfect in our country. Contract law, the General Rules of Civil Law and the Labor Law are not created to adjust the legal relation of service contract of seaman and not well applicable to it. In this actuality, the legitimate right of the seaman is not protected well. Moreover, our ocean shipping industry may be undermined. Fortunately, the State Council has carried out《the seaman statute of China》which will be enforced on September 1, 2007. The forth chapter of the statute lays out the basic rights of the seaman. But it is not enough for the protection of seaman. Therefore, this topic is worthy working on. I will do some discussion on it, on the basis of the reality of China and other countries over the world by means of putting theory and practice together. In this thesis, I will refer to the contents of the《the seaman statute of China》to discuss the reality of the legislation related to the service contract of seaman.Besides the introduction and the conclusion, this thesis consists of six chapters.There are two main issues in the first chapter. One is analysis on the concepts of labor contract and service contract. This is very important, because the nature of the contract determines the applicable law to the contract, and the applicable law determines the right and obligation between the parties of the contract. I introduce the reality and the development of the theory on it and give my own opinion. The other is the international service contract of seaman. The international service contract of seaman is, not only special, but also common in reality. My analysis is focused on the specialty of the subject and content of the international service contract of seaman.The second chapter focuses on one of the essence of the contract—subject. I pay a lot of attention to the most controversial subject, though only the supplementary subject—the intermediary organs of the service contract of seaman. Is the subject a broker irrelevant to the rights and obligations of the contract or not?The third chapter focuses on another essence of the service contract of seaman—content, in other word, the rights and obligations of the subjects. Most of the attention is paid to the issue of the rights of the seaman, including the right on payment, the qualified food supply, safety and sanitation during working on board and so on.The forth chapter analyses the disputes arouse of and responsibilities of the service contract of seaman. The first section discusses the insurance, right of action, basis of the claims and coincidence, the person responsible and range of the liability when the seaman suffers from wound. The second section discusses the responsibility related to the payment of the service. I divide it into two parts. One is that it is agreed in the contract that the payment is on the burden of the intermediate agency. The other is that it is agreed that the payment is on the burden of the ship owner.The fifth chapter discusses the resolution of the disputes. The first section discusses the issue of authoritative organ. This issue solve the problem that to which kind of court should the action be brought. The second section discusses the issue of jurisdiction. This issue solves the problem that to the court of which country, of which area, of which level the action should be brought. This is very important because it is related to the determination of limitation period. The third section discusses which the applicable law is. The focus is mainly on which rules should be used to adjust the relation of the service contract of seaman. The forth and fifth chapters discuss two somewhat special issues. One is the exception from the principle of arbitration priority. The other is the maritime lien relevant to service contract of seaman. The sixth section discusses the modes of compensation relevant to the service contract of seaman.The last part is the conclusion. It is my proposal, on the basis of the above analysis, to what has not been considered now by the legislation.