A Study On Maritime Limitation Of Liability System Of South Africa

Limitation of liability for maritime claims is an important system in the maritimelaw, the system gives the shipowner or any other main responsibility, to limit hisliability within a certain amount while the maritime claimant request a claim, Throughthe protection to the shipowner and the main responsibility with the interests, theseresponsibilities willing to be more capital into the shipping industry, to promote rapidand sound development of the shipping industry.South Africa has experienced the Dutch and British colonial rule, affected by itscolony in the maritime legal system, especially in maritime limition of liability system,has modeled the English law on the basis of established and developed, the UnitedKingdom case law summarize some rules of law also to be applied directly when aSouth African court to hear maritime disputes, therefore, the statutes and case law inthe United Kingdom is an important source of law in South Africa for maritimelimition of liability system.There are two major international conventions in the maritime limitation of liabilitysystem, namely “the1957Convention on Limitation of Liability”and“the1976Convention on Limitation of Liability”, including the main responsibilities ofmaritime claims for limitation of liability, limitation of liability applies to ships andmaritime claims, loss limitation of liability responsibility for the conditions, limits ofliability and limitation of liability fund provisions of the matter.By the relevantprovisions of the Convention introduced, to develople the South Africa’s maritimeclaims for limitation of liability. The Merchant Shipping Act of South Africa atdifferent times draw it on provisions of the two Conventions, as to revise and improvetheir own limitation of liability for maritime claims system, to built their owndistinctive maritime limitation of liability system. Merchant Shipping Act of SouthAfrica2009,in the limits of liability for maritime claims and the loss of the conditionsof limitation of liability to absorb the relevant provisions of international conventions,especially the introduction of the Convention over decreasing the amount of system tocalculate the limits of liability, at the same time, in the main responsibilities and theapplicable ships and maritime claims and other matters, according to the objectivedevelopment of the country have also made different provisions of the Convention.Under the background to the rapid development of the world shipping industry, thecontacts in the shipping business between South africa and China is becoming more frequent, more frequent maritime affairs also brought the infringement accidents andship collision to continue to occur even more, maritime disputes also will be growth,China’s shipping companies must be aware of the relevant maritime regime in SouthAfrican, in order to deal with the impact and influence of South Africa marine system.Through the presentation and analysis of the South Africa’s limition of liability formaritime restriction system, China’s shipping companies or any other person dealwith claims in South Africa’s maritime limitition of liability disputes, in a timelymanner to choose to apply suitable laws for their advantage,and to safeguard theirlegitimate rights and interests.