A Study On Criminal Liability Of Captains Who Abandon The Ship And Flee Away After Major Maritime Accidents

With the frequent occurrence of major maritime accidents,like the Italian shipwreck of"COSTA",the Korean ship "SEWOL",together with the improvement of water transport capability,the development of cruise tourism,and the frequent economic and trade exchanges,it has aroused widespread concern on the problem that captains of shipwrecks abandon the ship and escape,which have caused major casualties and the high number of disappearances.What troubles us most is how to prevent captain's abandoning and escaping behavior as much as possible in major shipwrecks as more attention has being paid to social harmony and stability.This thesis mainly studies the criminal responsibility of the captains who flee away and abandon all staff on board in major sea accidents.The opening of this thesis is a introduction of the reason why the author studies this theme and the current research status in China.The four chapters in this thesis are as follows:The first chapter is an overview of the criminal liability and is divided into three parts.The first part talks about the definition of "captain" in common law system countries and civil law countries,and the relevant provisions in Chinese law.In the second part,the author defines captains' abandoning and escaping behavior.Part three concerns about the sources for captains who abandoned the ship and flee away and studies respectively the unwritten customary law of captain last and the legal obligation for captains to evacuate last.This chapter lay a basis for the concrete analysis of the criminal responsibility of captains'abandoning and escaping behavior.The second chapter analyzes the necessity of the criminal liability of captains who abandon the ship and flee away,which is discussed from such aspects as the seriousness of the damage,being easily influenced by man-made factors,the administrative punishment being too light and the growing and aggravating trend the responsibility of the captain.The third chapter discusses the five criminal offenses involved in the abandoning and escaping behavior of captains in major maritime accidents,namely the crime of abandonment,crime of negligence causing death,malfeasance,and traffic offenses,and not as an indirect intentional homicide.The author also compares them with the related charges in China and analyzes whether they can be applied or not.The final chapter dwells on the suggestion of captain's criminal acts of abandoning and escaping.The author proposes to raise the standard for captains to be accused of abandoning and fleeing behavior,and appropriate lighter to not abandon ship captain as intentional homicide investigation first escape behavior of sentencing.In view of the importance of criminal responsibility for ensuring the performance of the role of the captain and the lack of research in such aspect as the legislation,judicial practice and theoretical studies in China,this thesis is named as A Study on Criminal Liability of Captains who Flee Away and Abandon the Ship after Major Sea Accident.In the process of writing,the author looked for a lot of relevant laws and regulations at home and abroad,and tried to collect as much as domestic and foreign related cases,trying to combine theory with practice.Efforts are also being made on the charges involved in the criminal liability of the captain who abandon the ship and flee away in major sea accident to make contribution to responsibility investigation.The integrated use of a variety of research methods is the premise and foundation for this paper to obtain research data,establish the direction of topics and research ideas.