| The maritime liability limitation system is one of the unique legal systems in the maritime law.It refers to the compensation system that limits the liability of the responsible person to a certain extent when a shipwreck accident causes property damage or personal injury to others.This limitation of liability is mainly achieved by setting a limit of liability.The limitation of liability for maritime claims is a form of sharing responsibility for the person responsible for the accident,so that the responsible person can only bear the limitation of liability for the damage caused by the person responsible,which is different from the general liability for damages in the civil law.The maritime law makes such a system stipulation that it seems to violate the principle of fairness and justice.In fact,it is a legal form to encourage the development of maritime industry,prevent commercial capital from flowing to maritime trade,and neglect maritime transportation,thus redistributing the interests of shipowners and shippers.It reflects the distribution of justice.China's maritime liability limitation system is based on the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims,and its main contents are stipulated in the Maritime Law of the People's Republic of China.In the eleventh chapter of the "Marine Law",the ninth chapter of the "Special Procedural Law of the Maritime Litigation of the People's Republic of China" specifically stipulates the procedures for the establishment of a maritime liability limitation fund.In addition,relevant judicialinterpretations and departmental regulations provide supplementary explanations and regulations on the contents of the system.Although China's maritime liability limitation system has a relatively comprehensive entity and procedural content,for many reasons,the system is only applicable to ocean-going vessels and coastal transportation and coastal operations,and Not applicable to inland vessels.The author believes that whether considering the major demand for the development of China's domestic river transport,or complying with the development trend of the international community,the same institutional guarantees should be given to inland ships.Since 2017,the state officially launched the revision of the Maritime Law.This is the third revision activity in the 25 years since the formulation of the Maritime Law of China,and the only event that officially revised the Maritime Law.In this modification activity,the issue of inland waterway transportation has become one of the major revision issues.The question of whether the maritime liability limitation system is applicable to inland vessels is widely discussed,especially the necessity and feasibility of applying this system to inland vessels.Be the focus of the discussion.In the "People's Republic of China Maritime Law(Revised Draft for Comments)" published by the Ministry of Transport on November 5,2018,inland vessels have been included in the system adjustment,but the liability limit The “single track system” approach is adopted to stipulate that the liability limits for the same standard apply to inland vessels,seagoing vessels and coastal vessels.This point does not agree with the author.The author believes that the "dual track system" legislative model should be adopted,that is,inland vessels and coastal vessels should apply different liability limits than seafarers.Therefore,in order to fully discuss the important issue of applying the maritime liability limitation system to inland vessels,this paper will start from the background research of system overview and theoretical disputes,and elaborate the necessity and feasibility of constructing the system of liability limitation for maritime claims of inland vessels.And specifically discuss the choice of the "single track system" or "dual track system" legislative model,and finally,specific suggestions for otherrelated issues in the system are considered by the author.According to this writing idea,this article is divided into four chapters,which are the background research,necessity and feasibility analysis,legislative mode selection and other specific suggestions for constructing the liability system for maritime liability of inland vessels.It should be noted that due to space reasons,this article takes the transportation of goods in inland waterway as the starting point and does not involve passenger transportation.In addition,this article only discusses the limitation of liability for maritime claims,and does not discuss the limitation of unit liability of the carrier.The first chapter of this paper is a study on the background of the limitation of liability for maritime claims of inland vessels,including the system overview,controversial issues,background reasons and so on.In this chapter,based on the introduction of the basic situation of China's current maritime liability limitation system,the theoretical controversy on whether China's current system is applicable to inland vessels is discussed.It must be said that the current system is applicable to inland vessels,based on the interpretation of the text,that the ships engaged in the carriage of goods between ports in China mentioned in the second paragraph of Article 210 of the Maritime Law include inland vessels transported between China's domestic river ports;On the contrary,the negative said that it is not applicable based on the system explanation,because the system of shipwreck rescue,ship collision,etc.in the Maritime Law has made special provisions for its applicable ships,and the maritime liability limitation system is not provided as required,so the system applies to ships.It should be consistent with the ship stipulated in Article 3 of the Maritime Law;in 2004,the “Ji Fa” round of the case ended the dispute that the inland river vessel did not apply the current maritime liability limitation system.In addition,this chapter discusses the reasons why the current system does not apply to inland vessels from the perspective of legislative background.The author believes that there are several reasons: Since the drafting of the Maritime Law was earlier,the inland waterway transportation is still in the planned development model of the planned economy,and the large state-owned enterprises control the interests of all parties inthe cargo,and it is difficult to balance the interests through legislation;At the same time,the purpose of drafting the Maritime Law was to promote maritime transport and economic development.At that time,it did not focus on inland water transport.In addition,given the development of the initial period of reform and opening up,China chose conservative application when drawing on the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability.Only apply the system to seagoing vessels and coastal vessels.The second chapter of this paper is one of the key chapters of the full text.It mainly discusses the necessity and feasibility of constructing the liability system for maritime liability of inland vessels.Professor Si Yuzhuo pointed out at a symposium on the revision of the Maritime Law that inland water transport and Whether the inland navigation vessel is included in the adjustment of the Maritime Law is whether it has such necessity and feasibility,and the necessity is the precondition.The feasibility includes the feasibility of judicial practice and the feasibility of legislative technology.This chapter is based on the professor's This idea is discussed.Regarding the necessity,the author believes that in the navigable waters connected with the sea,inland vessels and seagoing vessels face the same natural risks,and the compensation capacity of inland rivers owners and the compensation capacity of sea-going shipowners are quite large.Institutional protection of liability,inland vessels are still liable for actual damages in accordance with the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Tort Liability.In addition to the principle of fairness and reasonableness;in addition,with the advancement of reform and opening up and the implementation of the strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,China's domestic river transportation industry has begun to take shape,and it is urgent to escort the maritime liability limitation system;however,since the domestic waterway cargo transportation rules After the abolition of the "Goods Regulations" in 2016,the inland river transportation not only lacks the guarantee of the liability restriction system,but also lacks the legal norms for adjusting the relationship of inland water transportation.Therefore,it is very necessary to incorporate the inland water transportation into the regulation of the Maritime Law.The expansion of the maritime liability limitation system applies toinland vessels.With regard to feasibility,the author believes that the international community's practices and the historical origins of China's relevant legislation have provided many experiences for the construction of China's system;in judicial practice,the Wuhan Maritime Court's many years of inland transport trials have provided us with rich judicial experience.It has also cultivated a large number of high-quality and professional judicial talents for the country;in the legislative technology,the content of Chapter 11 of the Maritime Law has been extended to apply to inland vessels,which not only saves legislative resources,but also improves the efficiency of legislation.It mainly involves the revision of the general law and the definition of the relevant law in the relevant system,which is a partial modification of the Maritime Law.The third chapter of this paper is also the key chapter of the full text,mainly discussing the choice of legislative mode,that is,the choice of "monorail system" or "dual track system".This chapter analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the three legislative models by understanding the practices of the major shipping countries in the world,and then selects the most suitable "dual-track" legislative model,and proposes the issue of the quota conflict under the "dual track system".The content of this chapter is The rebuttal of the “single track system” was adopted in the revised draft.In the first section,the author introduces the legislation of the "single track system" such as the United Kingdom and Japan and the "dual track system" countries such as Germany and the Netherlands,and believes that the choice of the legislative model must be based on the actual needs of the country,so in the second quarter Combined with the actual development of China's domestic river transportation,the advantages and disadvantages of the three legislative models are analyzed.The author believes that although the "monorail system" is convenient for judicial trials,it does not adapt to the development of inland navigation today.Even though the scale of development of domestic river vessels has been a breakthrough,compared with the international community,especially several major shipping powers,It is still relatively backward,far from reaching the advanced level,and cannot fully apply the limit of liability set by the international community.Under the conditions ofstate policy support,the attitude of protecting the development of the river should be adopted and the "dual track system" should be carefully selected.At the same time,as more and more ships can engage in both inland water transport and coastal transport,it is possible to stipulate that the inland river ship and the coastal ship apply the same limit,so there is no need to apply the “three track system”.Then,under the "dual track system",if there are two cases where ships with different limits collide,how do you decide the application of the liability limit? The author believes that this problem can be based on the provisions of Article 5 of the "Regulations on Maritime Compensation Limits for Ships and Coastal Transportation and Coastal Operation Ships under 300 Tonnage" formulated by the former Ministry of Communications in1993..Although there is two understandings of the term “applicable to establish a fund” and “existing applicable” in the article “applicable” in this article,the Supreme People's Law considers that “applicable” here should be the second understanding,that is,the ship in question.When one of them is a sea-going vessel,regardless of whether it claims the right to limit the liability,the coastal vessel is subject to the sea-ship limit standard.Similarly,the inland vessel is also applicable.The fourth chapter of this paper is a concrete proposal for related issues in the construction of the system,mainly related to the application of ships,waters,liability limits and the revision of relevant laws and regulations.Regarding the ships to which the maritime liability limitation system applies,the international community has various criteria for judging.On the basis of analyzing the relevant judgment standards of China and the international community,the author combines the preconditions for the application of the system by inland vessels and coastal vessels and seagoing vessels.Ships that consider the system to be applicable should be defined in terms of tonnage and navigational waters.In combination with the provisions of Articles 2 and3 of China's Maritime Law,the author believes that inland vessels should meet the tonnage conditions of more than 20 tons in tonnage,which is consistent with the provisions of the Maritime Law;it should be limited to The maritime waters of the sea and the tributaries and lakes of the tributaries.With regard to the limitation of liability,the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability,which is referenced by theMaritime Law,amended the limitation of liability in the form of a protocol in 1996.Therefore,the author believes that the "dual track system" legislative model is implemented.In the context of the seagoing vessel,the liability limit should be increased by the 1996 Protocol.The liability limit for inland and coastal vessels is50% of the sea boat limit.After the maritime liability limitation system is expanded and applied to inland vessels,the definitions of ships and transportation in the General Regulations of the Maritime Law should be revised.At the same time,due to the collision of ships,shipwreck rescue,etc.For the sake of completeness,these systems should also be extended to apply to inland vessels and the relevant laws and regulations should be amended.In summary,in the context of the revision of the Maritime Law,this article discusses the relevant content of the inland river vessel maritime liability limitation system from the contents of the four major sections.The full text uses literature analysis,case studies,comparative research and other methods,combined with the extensive literature during the revision of the Maritime Law,analyzes the classic cases and the Supreme People's Court guidance cases,and compares the legal provisions of the international community in multiple sections,comprehensive analysis of the thesis.Through the combination of various methods,the author fully discusses the necessity and feasibility of constructing the maritime liability limitation system of China's domestic vessels,and raises an objection to the legislative model of the "monorail system" in the revised draft.It advocates adopting the "dual track system" legislative model;it puts forward specific suggestions for other problems in the system construction.The author has carried out specific analysis on the above contents. |
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