A Study On The Right Of Salvor To Avail Himself Of The Right Of Limitation Of Liability For Maritime Claims

The salvors in the salvage have the right to use the limitation of liability for maritime claims.However,employed salvage is a new form of salvage.Its particularity makes it difficult to claim whether the salvor in the employed salvage has the right to use the limitation of liability for maritime claims.This paper first analyzes the specificity of employed salvage and sorts out the different views that exist in theory today.To clarify the attributes of the employed salvage contract and its legal application,and put forward my own views that the salvor in the employed salvage does not belong to the salvor specified in Chapter 9 of the Maritime Law.After clarifying that salvors do not belong to salvors in Chapter 9 of the Maritime Code,study the scope of the subject of the limitation of liability for maritime claims,in order to determine whether the salvors in the employed salvage are among the subject of limitation of liability for maritime claims.This paper selects international conventions and the provisions of several major shipping country’s domestic laws to conduct a comparative analysis and combining with the current provisions of China’s Maritime Law,analyze whether the salvors in employed salvage are the right subjects who can use the limits of liability for maritime claims.This paper believes that although salvor in the employed salvage can not use the limitation of liability for maritime claims as the salvor under the current Chinese law,but due to the fact that the current employed salvage mainly uses ships as salvage tools,it can still use the limitation of liability for maritime claims as the shipowner.However,salvors who use helicopters as salvage equipment,dispatched divers or salvors who dispatched to salvaged ships,etc.are excluded.This paper is divided into three parts.The first part is the analysis of the specificity of employed salvage.Using the " Archangelos Gabriel" case as a primer,combined with three different viewpoints on the legal attributes of employed salvage in China,it is concluded that employed salvage is not applicable to Chapter 9 of the Maritime Law of the People’s Republic of China.The second part is the combination of employed salvage and the limitation of liability for maritime claims.It compares and analyzes the legislative provisions of international conventions,foreign laws and domestic laws on the scope of salvors in the subject of limitation of liability for maritime claims,and summarizes the defect of current domestic law.The third part mainly discusses whether the salvors in the employed salvage can use the limitation of liability for maritime claims through other means,and the last part proposed legislative proposals to protect their rights to use the limitation of liability for maritime claims.