KJCKorea
Journal Central

Arrest of ships is one of the most distinctive legal systems in the maritime field. In the process of arresting ships, there may be two kinds of jurisdictions involved, one is the jurisdiction to arrest ships, and the other is the substantive jurisdiction of maritime case. There are different view in common law and civil law countries as to "whether the court arresting a ship can acquire the substantive jurisdiction of maritime case because of the arrest of the ship involved".In order to coordinate the differences between the two legal systems on this issue,<International Convention Relating to the Arrest of Sea-Going Ships 1952>,<Hamburg Rules> and <International Convention on Arrest of Ships 1999> have stipulated the relationship between the jurisdiction to arrest ships and the substantive jurisdiction of maritime case, which has made a positive exploration to ease jurisdictional conflicts of international maritime action. However, due to the limitations of international conventions, legislative differences between different countries and forum shopping of maritime claimant, the jurisdictional conflicts of international maritime action is still serious. This paper analyzes the development history of the relationship between the jurisdiction to arrest ships and the substantive jurisdiction of maritime case by analyzing the international conventions related to the arrest of ships and the legislative status of the common law and civil law countries, and on the basis of the analysis of the legislative and judicial status of the jurisdiction to arrest ships and the substantive jurisdiction of maritime case in China, it makes several suggestions to improve the jurisdiction to arrest ships and the substantive jurisdiction of maritime case in China, namely, the Chinese courts should adhere to the principle of international comity in the judicial practice of maritime litigation, introduce the doctrine of forum non conveniens into <Special Maritime Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China>, and strengthen international judicial cooperation, in order to ease the jurisdictional conflicts between countries.

The jurisdiction to arrest ships， The substantive jurisdiction of maritime case，International convention on arrest of ships，Jurisdictional conflict，The doctrine of forum non conveniens