선박충돌로 인한 손해배상청구권자의 범위에 관한 연구

Among the cases of damage in the maritime transportation industry, marine collision accidents inevitably include international legal disputes and issues on the application of laws of various countries due to the nature of accidents between ships or parties and property accidents caused by ships. The Korean Commercial Act accepts international treaties such as the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law with respect to Collision between Vessels 1910 and gives regulations on ship collisions. In addition, Article 876 (2) of the Commercial Act includes cases in which damage due to indirect collisions occurs by stipulating that collision of ships does not ask for direct contact. However, since the limited liability of shipowners of Article 769 of the Commercial Act applies to ship owners who are negligent in ship collisions, the liability of the shipowner for claims related to the death of a person, bodily injury, loss or damage of goods other than a ship, or claims related to the damage caused by direct damage to the ship's operation is limited according to the tonnage of the ship and the type of damage based on the Article 770. In addition, Article 876 defines ship collisions as collisions between seagoing ships or between a seagoing ship and a ship of inland navigation, and from Articles 877 to 880 regulate the proportionate fault between related vessels. In the case of compensation for damages caused by ship collisions, the shipowner's liability and the distribution of responsibilities among the direct parties to the collision are stipulated, but there are no separate regulations on the criteria for claiming damages from the perspective of various victims who suffered damage due to ship collisions, so it seems that general civil procedures must be followed. In addition, research so far in Korea in relation to ship collision accidents has mainly focused on the scope of responsibility for accidents. However, in practice, in a lawsuit dealing with the responsibility after an accident, before calculating the scope of responsibility between the parties, it is necessary to determine whether the party claiming compensation for the damage has the right to claim compensation against the shipowner of the collision-causing ship. This is because in the case of a ship collision at sea, the scale and scope of damage are quite wide and people in various fields are directly or indirectly damaged, so if there is no standard for the right to claim damages due to an collision, unlimited lawsuits can be flooded. Of the total 54 ship accidents involving over 100 tons ships that occurred in 2021, only 3 occurred in the waters of Korea, Japan, and North China. In addition, even if an accident occurs between a Korean ship and a foreign ship in Korean waters, a lawsuit may be filed with a foreign court to be subject to foreign law according to the interests of the parties, and most lawsuits against international ship accidents are often filed with U.S. or British courts. Despite these practical problems with the scale of damage to ship accidents and applicable jurisdiction, sufficient research has not been conducted on related laws and cases in the U.K. and the U.S., where lawsuits for international ship accidents have been filed. Therefore, this paper reviewed the scope of claimants for damages caused by ship collision formed through U.S. and U.K. precedents, where various cases of ship collision have been accumulated. The Robins Dry Dock Rule in the U.S. and British law have provided clear criteria for determining whether a particular party can claim damages from a collision, and so far, proprietary interest for claiming damages based on precedents are expected to remain an important requirements under U.S. maritime law. In other words, the recognition of various exceptions by precedents and laws raises questions about whether the Robins Dry Dock Rule is still clear, but those exceptions are formed according to their respective circumstances and it will still be applied as valid criteria under U.S. maritime law. Korean Commercial Act introduced regulations on ship collisions, but the scope of application for various damage cases caused by ship collisions is limited. It is necessary to review general principles for the scope of claimants due to ship collision, such as Robbins Dry Dock Rule, as well as the application of detailed cases, and improve regulations that allow exceptional rapid and reasonable compensation and relief if special protective measures are needed.