Research On The Right To Claim Compensation For Life Rescue At Sea

Salvage at sea,referred to as disaster relief at sea,can be traced back to the Byzantine law of the seventh century at least.Its basic principle is to maintain shipping safety and encourage social assistance,and its core content is to improve the effect of assistance and pay the rescuers.Salvage is a defense against the recognized potential dangers of the sea,and the resulting altruism and heroism are also admirable qualities.The theoretical research on salvage system at sea has been relatively thorough and perfect,but most of them focus on property salvage,compared with the research on life salvage at sea is slightly insufficient.From the perspective of legal provisions,there are only two or three articles in the international convention and the maritime law currently in force in China concerning the salvage of human life,and the salvors can't enjoy the right of independent compensation claim bases on saving life;from the practical point of view,there is no lack of phenomenon of being helpless at sea.Therefore,it is necessary to re-examine the system of life saving in maritime salvage,and realize that attaching the right of life saving compensation to the effect of property salvage from the legal level will easily lead to the practical problem that life is not saved or despised.It can be seen that the system of saving life under maritime distress needs to be improved.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part is an overview of salvage life at sea.First of all,the scope of salvage at sea is defined,and the specific situations and characteristics of salvage at sea are discussed in this paper,based on the traditional theory of salvage at sea andthe legal provisions of salvage at sea.Secondly,we should sort out the historical evolution of maritime salvage,understand its tortuous development,and recognize the changes of the value goal of maritime salvage,so as to gradually transfer from focusing on property salvage to focusing on life salvage and environmental salvage.In the second part,it mainly discusses the legal nature,theory and relevant international conventions and legal provisions of the right to salvage compensation at sea.Through the analysis of specific cases,this part sorts out the existing theories,compares the attitudes of the existing laws in various countries to the right of compensation,analyzes the influence of different theories and laws on practical activities,and weighs the advantages and disadvantages,and then proves the necessity and rationality of the existence of the right of independent compensation.This paper mainly selects three representative cases: The Emblem case,The Annie Lord case and Peninsular case.In these three cases,although no independent compensation claim has been established for life salvage at sea,it is clear from the judgment and the judge's comments that their attitude towards independent compensation claim for life salvage at sea is gradually changing and becoming more positive and supportive.In The case of Emblem,The U.S district court for The district of Maine ruled that life salvage human life have no right to ask for compensation from those who have been rescued.In The case of The Annie Lord,The court clearly pointed out that only when The property was successfully saved,The salvor could get certain compensation for saving human life.In the Peninsular case,the idea that this bad view for the rescuer was broken.U.S.appeals court put forward the judge in the trial,despite the fact that save life is a "sacred duty",but when the salvor provides timely and effective rescue behavior to protect the interests of rescued people,these "Good Samaritan" to undertake the responsibility and successful implementation of the rescue,should obtain the compensation.The third part is on the basis of the independence of the compensation for saving human life.The first is the payment subject of the salvage reward.This paper discusses the payer of compensation from the perspective of maritime disaster relief fund model and "liability relief" theory.The second is to determine the amount ofreward.This problem can refer to the provisions of article 180 of the maritime law of China,the salvage effect,the salvage cost and the nature and degree of danger as the factors to determine the amount of reward.The fourth part is a small suggestion to perfect the system of salvage life at sea.Firstly,referring to the merchant shipping act of 1894: On the one hand,affirmed that human life belonged to the object of salvage by legislation;on the other hand,the independence and priority of claims for salvage life at sea should be clarified.Secondly,the legal liability for violation of the obligation of salvage of life at sea should be clarified.Finally,it is suggested to set up a salvage fund for life at sea and to refer to the compulsory insurance liability system in the air law.