Seafarer Payment Protection through Maritime Liens: Law and Practice in China

Abstract: China is one of the leading providers of seafarers in the world. Following it, cases involving violation of seafarer wages occur occasionally. As for the measurement in settling the disputes, a seafarer can choose from the following: reconciliation, mediation, labor arbitration, law suits, and etc. If a law suit is chosen by a seafarer, he has to know how to protect his rights and interests then. Maritime lien is an ancient system specifically in Maritime Law. Under the uniform guidance of three international treaties, different countries have mostly reached unanimity on this system. Countries have special provisions regarding different states of countries though. A seafarer must understand its provisions both on substantive law and procedural law, if one wants to safeguard one’s right in a Chinese maritime court. Maritime lien is legal security interest of a seafarer’s right, when claiming it a seafarer must clarify the acquisition of the maritime lien, and have whether or not transferred it to someone else. Additionally, one should proactively prevent oneself from losing the maritime lien. The ways a seafarer can realize the maritime lien include separate exercise and joint exercise, which both require seafarer must apply for seizure of the ship or apply for confirmation his rights. However, in exceptional cases of joint exercise, to fill the loopholes, specific treatments need to be considered. A Chinese maritime court hears a relevant case, such a court shall try its best to protect seafarer’ interests and to exercise the justice. In the meantime, it is important to handle the sequential conflict between labor arbitration and maritime court jurisdiction. When hearing such cases, they need to determine whether to strict if exercising the maritime lien is clarified on the petition, and whether or not to combine different cases in trial. This thesis also discusses the defects in legislation about maritime lien in China’s maritime laws, and how to improve in legislation in the future, referring to intentional treaties and some foreign laws. When discussing how a seafarer exercise maritime lien, it certainly touches upon seizure of the ship. Given that seizure itself is a general subject, hence this thesis only touches it in limited contents. Next, as to reference of international treaties and foreign laws, this thesis cannot state explicitly every different provision of different countries, but only talks about maritime liens of a few typical countries.