Study On The Unification Of Rules On The Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Maritime Judgments

As an important part of international civil and commercial judgments,the recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments play an important role in practice.Due to the lack of uniform rules,the practice of recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments face many obstacles.This not only leads to the uncertainty of the individual rights and interests,but also the incredibility of international maritime litigation.Whether and how the rules for the recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments can be unified,and thus provide assistance for the unification of practice is the focus of this research.In addition to introduction and conclusion,this paper mainly has five chapters.In the first chapter,the author discusses the status quo of legislation and practice regarding the recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments.It can be found that the recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments currently mainly depend on the domestic laws of the court addressed.Due to the variances of the rules of different countries,the same maritime judgment will face different treatments in different countries,which further means the effect of the judgment lacks certainty.In addition,in some cases,judgment creditors can employ certain maritime procedures to enforce their unsatisfied judgments.Since such practice is based on the special procedures under the admiralty jurisdiction in the common law countries,it is quite limited.In Chapter 2,the author discusses that the international maritime convention plays an active role in unifying maritime jurisdiction,but on the other hand it fails to unify the practice of recognition and enforcement of maritime judgments.The reason is that the clauses regarding the recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments are not mandatorily binding.Therefore,the unification the practice on the recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments should rely on the specialized multilateral rules on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.In Chapter 3,based on the practice under the Brussels Regime,the author elucidates how the regional framework unifies the recognition and enforcement of maritime judgments.By incorporating the jurisdiction rules in the international maritime conventions and by directly legislation,the Brussels Regime integrates the special jurisdiction rules in the maritime arena,which paves the way for the recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments.The practice under the Brussels Regime also shows that the recognition of foreign maritime may lead to certain adverse effects on the country of the court addressed,due to the way of determining the effect of foreign judgments.In Chapter 4,the author examines why the Hague Judgment Convention excludes some types of maritime judgments.It can be found that,the reason for the exclusion lies in that the drafters have misunderstanding of the function of the international maritime convention.Moreover,the exclusion has obvious loopholes.Since the Convention only partially excludes maritime judgments,and the drafters did not provide any rules for reviewing the jurisdiction for those maritime judgments that still fall within the scope of the convention.This will lead to the refusal of some maritime judgments given by foreign courts of which the jurisdiction is based on the prevailing jurisdiction rules in the field of maritime law.In Chapter 5,based on the previous discussion,it is proposed that maritime judgments should be fully incorporated into The Hague Judgment Convention in order to promote the unification of the practice on the recognition and enforcement of foreign maritime judgments and to enhance the credibility of international maritime.litigation.The author further proposes that the Hague Judgment Convention may add a new article to incorporate the jurisdictions rules of the international conventions for the review of the jurisdiction of the court which renders the foreign judgment.It is also proposed that,in order to prevent the adverse effect on the court addressed when giving recognition to foreign judgments,the effect of foreign judgments should be determined by a combined effect approach.