스텔라 데이지(Stella Daisy)호 침몰사고의 법적 쟁점

M/V Stella Daisy laden with full cargo of iron ore on board became missing on March 31, 2017 around South Atlantic sea. The Vessel was operated by P as a BBCHP Korean company. Republic of Korea allows ship operator to borrow vessel from the foreign ship owner. However, the BBCHP vessel is subject to Korean ship safety law. The P will be hold liable for the damages against the cargo owner and bereaved families of missing crews. The P enters into liability insurance with the liability insurer known as Protection and Indemnity Club to protect himself against such loss. In addition, the P may receive insurance proceeds from the hull insurer. The author carries out research on ship safety and liability issues. When a case at issue is involved in a foreign factor, the Korean court should consult with the Korean International Private Law to decide the governing law for the case. The legal issues regarding shipowner’s limitation of liability and maritime lien are governed by the flag state(Marshall Island)’s law according to Korean International Private Law Art. 60. Because the BBCHP is basically subject to the flag state’s safety regulation, we may adopt to apply Korean safety regulation to the same vessel in order to enhance the safety standard. In case that the vessel sank, the claimant is not allowed to invoke the maritime lien against the insurance proceed under the Korean law. In order to protect the crew’s bereaved family, we may need to allow them to exercise their lien on the insurance proceeds. In case that the vessel could not arrive at the discharging port, the consignee does not obtain the contractual right to request the delivery of the cargo because the KCC says that the consignee may have the same right to demand the return of the cargo as the consignee when the cargo arrives at the discharging port. In order to protect the consignee, we need to give it the right to claim the delivery of the cargo to it in addition to the shipper.