A Comparative Study on Protecting Chinese Seafarers’ Labor Rights: Focusing on the Introduction of Korea’s Seafarers Act

With China’s seafarer workforce continuously expanding but lacking dedicated legal protections for labor rights, enacting a separate Seafarers Law represents a critical approach to addressing this gap. Legal transplantation is an essential method in lawmaking, and comparative law serves as a foundational step in this process. By comparing the connotation and denotation of the term “seafarer” in Korea and China, it is evident that China should define “seafarers” to include domestic coastal and international navigation seafarers when drafting the Seafarers Law. A comparative analysis of seafarers’ labor rights legislation in Korea and China, from the macro level of the legal system and the micro level of core norms, highlights several problems in China’s current framework: low legal hierarchy, a legal system structure misaligned with the principle of proportionality, norms that are incomplete and vague, regulatory redundancy and contradictions, and an emphasis on administrative management over rights protection. These insights provide clear guidance for China in developing a separate Seafarers Law by 2035.