Research On The Conflict Between LLMC And Maritime Lien

The limitation of liability for maritime claims ("LLMC") and maritime lien, as two kinds of characteristics in Maritime Law, exhibits a contradictory protection for the legal interest. LLMC relieves the liabilities of the infringers in maritime accidents such as the shipowners, the salvors and the insurers for liabilities, while the maritime lien aims at the smooth realization of certain maritime claims against the shipowners and bareboat charterers. The inconsistency of the legislative purposes results in the conflicts both in the operating procedures and indemnification results, base on which the author defines the conflicting relationship between these two legal mechanisms. For the issue concerning the limited credits secured by maritime lien in one accident, LLMC and maritime lien have different provisions on the amount and sequence of indemnification as well as the necessity for the existence of credits in the case of insufficient indemnification. The aforesaid credits, if governed by LLMC instead of maritime lien, would be affected materially. By an analysis of such credits, this paper comes up with some suggestions to the payment of the credits.The paper is divided into three parts except the introduction and conclusion.The first part briefly introduces LLMC and maritime lien and then their relationship is defined by comparisons between the legislative purposes, operating procedures and indemnification results. In addition, the history of international treaties for LLMC and maritime lien is studied, laying a foundation for following discussions.The second part discusses and analyzes the conflicts between the two legal mechanisms by vertical and horizontal methods. Vertical method refers to the in-depth discussion on the legislative purpose, operating procedure and indemnity result, while the horizontal method means the classification and discussion of the credits involving in the two mechanisms.The third part summarizes and comments on the manifestations of conflicts between two legal mechanisms under Chinese legislation and then the suggestions are put forward and analyzed on the basis of a simplified indemnification procedure and humanism concern.