Study On The Issue Of The Limitation Of Maritime Towage At Sea

With the increasing of towing operations,the growth of professional towing companies and the improvement of the technical level of the towing,the towage at sea has become a complex and inclusive maritime service.Meantime,the substantive legal issues involved are becoming increasingly complex.As a special regime,The Limitation of towage at sea cannot simply apply to the Chapter VII of the towage and Chapter XI Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims.So far,the international legislation and judicial practice haven't formed a common maritime towage in the field of international conventions and practices.Although,compared to other countries,China's Maritime Code(CMC)has formulated special provisions in towage at sea,which is lack in the content and frame and cannot effectively cover and solve the new problem of judicial practice.Thus,there is necessary to study the legal problems involved towage.The paper mainly discusses the issue form four parts.The first part is the summary of limitation of towage at sea.First,elaborating the particularity of the issue.Then,discussing the issues related to limitation of towage at sea from two angles:the tug and tow;the two parties and the third party.The second part is the limitation of towage at sea between tug and tow.The part is focus on the issues involved on the first part,and put forward my own views in accordance with the provisions of existing laws.The third part is the limitation of towage at sea between tug and tow and involving third parties.Firstly,discourse the particular of the issues by a case.Secondly,introduce the development of "the flotilla rule" and "pure tort".Finally,introduce the viewpoint in the issues of ChineseThe forth part is the comments and legislative proposals of the limitation of towage at sea.Based on discuss of forepart,putting forward the reasonable ideas of introducing the host power to the towage contract and expanding the subject access to the liability for limitation.By analyzing the rationality of "the flotilla rule" and "pure tort",proposing the legislative proposals that "press part and limit join principle",to solve the limitation of tug and tow involving the third part.