Case Analysis On Salvaging The Sunken Objects In Taizhou City

In May2008,17mariners from "Kongshun9" and23mariners from "Xinhong168" were arrested by Taizhou Marine Police, for the reason of salvaging the steel of sunken vessel at Contiguous Zone in Taizhou Zhejiang Sea. Accordingly they were accused of theft by the Jiaojiang District People’s Procurator in Taizhou, and put to trial by the court. Before the case sparked widespread social concern after the whole process of the case was disclosed by the news media, nobody was convicted for such a salvaging matter.Many scholars have serious different opinions about the present case. There are3different opinions in the present case:The first view is that the mariners’ conduct causes the Larceny; The second view is that their conduct causes the offenses of misappropriation; The third view is that their conduct did not constitute any crime, on the contrary their conduct merely break the Civil law not the Criminal law. The greatest controversy in the present case is that such a conduct is illegal or not.Firstly, the writer analyzed the nature of the steel of the sunken vessel in the present case in accordance with the larceny theory of the Criminal law and unjust enrichment theory of the Civil law; Secondly, the writer analyzed the jurisdiction and the application of law in the present case; Finally the writer determined the nature of the such a conduct of the mariners’ salvaging of the sunken at sea.In the present case, from a secondary starting point the case itself relates to the personal interests of property interests of the parties, but from an important starting point the accurate positioning of the case is related to similar processing. The case reflects China’s current maritime legislation blank and unintelligible ownership of the shipwreck system. After all, the writer believed that the analysis of the case is significant for the meaning of the legislation and justices.