Us Diamond Princess Again Alert: Three Major Problems In Cruise Industry

The shadow of the diamond princess is now enveloping the US coastline.

In March 5th, a princess of the carnival cruises, carrying 2500 passengers, cancelled the itinerary and returned to San Francisco's port. The CDC says it is investigating the new cases of "small scale" new crown pneumonia on the cruise ship of the supreme princess. The reason is that two cases of newly diagnosed crown pneumonia virus in California participated in the voyage of Princess supreme from February 11th to 21, from San Francisco to Mexico. One of them died in March 4th and another was hospitalized.

The governor of California, New Zealand, said that 11 passengers and 10 crew members on the cruise ship had symptoms of the new crown pneumonia virus. He said he would not let the "supreme Princess" rely on Hong Kong for the time being. The CDC and California health officials are testing ship personnel. Then the results will be used to assess how to deal with the cruise.

"If tourists do not see a properly handled case of the" Diamond Princess "cruise case, everyone's trust in cruise business will be reduced. Ning Tao, director of the economic policy and development strategy research center of the Institute of water transport science and transportation of the Ministry of transport, pointed out that the demand for cruise tourism is a non rigid recreational demand. Safety and reliability are the most basic prerequisites for cruise business. If the risk is too large or the subsequent unpredictability of disposal is, "tourists will not come." Ren Ningtao road.

It can be seen that the experience of the "Diamond Princess" cruise is crucial to restoring the cruise market. What are the responsibilities of passengers on a cruise ship that is similar to the diamond princess? Who does the power and responsibility of the accident belong to? To whom should the relevant costs and compensation be recovered? A few days ago, the China Maritime Arbitration Commission and the marine law research center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences jointly sponsored the "online symposium on legal issues related to cruise ships", and heated discussions on practical issues such as legal theories to be solved.

Who is to blame?

The "supreme Princess" incident was the third "dangerous situation" of a cruise ship in just a half month.

On the evening of March 3rd, a German cruise ship carrying 1200 passengers was separated from the ship at Haugesund port, Norway, where two passengers were contacted a week ago with a confirmed new crown pneumonia infection. Fortunately, the inspection results of the two passengers were negative, and the boat continued its journey as planned.

In February 28th, MSC's "legendary" super large cruise liner was also refused to be stopped by three ports in Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Mexico because of the fever and cough of sailors and passengers. Later, when the president of Mexico intervened, he landed at the port. After examination, the symptoms of crew members and passengers were not related to the new coronavirus, and the whole ship was unsealed. The cruise subsequently suspended the subsequent voyage and returned to the port of Miami in advance.

A series of incidents have reflected the public's concern about the sealing of the cruise ship, lest it become a copy of Japan's "Diamond Princess", while Japan's poor rescue process has also made the public see the short board of international cruise assistance. Therefore, the seminar took the lead in discussing the responsibilities of countries in international cruise assistance.

Like the legendary cruise liner, which was repeatedly refused to dock by Caribbean ports, the "Weishi Dan" was also encountered in Asia. In this regard, the public and shipping companies really can not accuse the ports of all countries, because according to the principle of innocent passage of the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea and the principle of no epidemic through international health regulations, the coastal countries are allowed to refuse to cruise in Hong Kong on the ground of protecting their own safety. However, Wu Xianjiang, vice president of the Ningbo maritime court, said that if it were not the port of home and the port of attachment, the ports of various countries could be rejected. "But as a port of origin and a port of attachment, there is absolute obligation." Therefore, although the "Diamond Princess" is a hot potato, the Japanese government must undertake it.

Wu Xianjiang pointed out that the port of origin is the starting point and destination of the cruise ship. The "Diamond Princess" cruise incident also belongs to the category of its operational risk. The port of Hong Kong has the absolute obligation to receive the cruise, and the host country that is affiliated to the port should fulfill such obligations unless the port and port haven't reached the standards of the international health port. It is not difficult to understand why Japan has received the docked "Diamond Princess" cruise, but has refused to stop the application of the "Weishi Dan" cruise liner.

And after the "Diamond Princess" cruise entered Japan's Yokohama port, it was not that other countries had no international obligations. Shi Xiaojuan, a professor at the grammar school of Hebei University of Technology, believes that based on the principles of international cooperation and obligations of WHO members, the countries of the world have the obligations and moral principles of international law to assist Japan.

Dai Ruijun, an associate researcher of the Institute of international law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out from the perspective of international human rights law that the new crown pneumonia epidemic is mainly concerned with the protection of the right to health. According to the provisions of the International Covenant on economic, social and cultural rights and from the perspective of international human rights law, the state of nationality has the obligation to protect the right to national health. That is to say, the state should send its crew and tourists back to China.

To deal with such incidents in the future, in order to deal with the problem of responsibility distribution among countries, Zhang Zhi fan, a lecturer in international law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, suggests that under the circumstances of receiving epidemic ships and carrying out public health assistance in port countries, a "compound responsibility" mechanism can be designed to allocate port state and flag state responsibilities.

"International law does not authorize the compulsory transfer of relevant rights by all countries, so there is no" hard "law enforcement requirement. Chen Qi, a master tutor of the school of international law, East China University of political science and law, also suggested that an international cooperation mechanism should be established to prevent passenger's consumer confidence from falling into such a situation or because the State concerned refuses to rely on the port because of concerns about related costs.

Who will pay for the four kind of expenses?

At present, the last member of the diamond princess is leaving the ship. The cruise operator is recruiting suitable cleaning companies worldwide to disinfect the entire ship thoroughly. Before and after this, the shipping company has to do a lot of things, such as claims and claims.

There is no precedent for the "Diamond Princess" cruise incident. The Chinese ship owner Mutual Insurance Association's compliance and legal director, Jia Peng, pointed out that the "Diamond Princess" cruise incident related to the cost of the association has two broad categories: one is the liability of the shipowner for external compensation, including the Shipowners' liability for compensation for injuries and deaths of crew and passengers; the other is shipowners' payment under special circumstances. Some specific charges include the cost of quarantine and disinfection, the cost of repatriation of crew members, and the cost of changing routes for the purpose of saving lives.

Chen Youmu, senior partner of Yingtai law firm, deputy director of the maritime law and maritime Specialized Committee of China National Law Association, and China Zhonghai arbitrator, said that the cost involved in the "Diamond Princess" cruise is mainly divided into four parts: first, the cost arising from quarantine and isolation; two, the medical expenses and preventive costs of the crew, tourists and cruise company operators; three It is the transhipment expenses caused by the fact that the epidemic has not reached the destination, and the four is the loss of profits caused by the shipowners.

At present, the cruise company has promised to refund passengers. The cost of refund includes the cost of shipping tickets, air tickets, hotels, shore tourism and some compensation for future voyages. The Japanese government also gave free treatment to all infected passengers. "There should not be much dispute about the cost of this part. As tourists disembark, they may have disputes and lawsuits in order to safeguard their rights and interests. Sun Siqi, a lecturer at Law School of Shanghai Maritime Univeristy, believes that in foreign cruise market, travel agencies are generally only sales agents of cruise companies, and are less likely to become claims. The future claims of passengers argue that the prevention and control measures for epidemic situation are more appropriate for cruise companies and even the Japanese government.

There are different stipulations in terms of the terms of the tickets in the American market and the Japanese market, and different market applicable laws are different. The applicable law should be determined according to the conflict rules of the court. Sun Siqi pointed out that more than half of the "Diamond Princess" passengers are Japanese nationality, so that the case of civil action initiated by passengers in Japan should be a minority. According to the seventeenth article of the general law applicable law of Japan, the principle of tort applies to the law of the place where the result of injuring acts occurs. Taking into account the latent period of virus and other factors, it may be difficult to identify the place of occurrence. If the time of occurrence of the infringement result can not be proved, the result may point to the location of the destination port where the Diamond Princess outbreak occurred at the time, thus applying the Japanese law. If a Chinese traveller brings a lawsuit in the court of our country, according to the forty-fourth provision of the law applicable to foreign related civil relations law applicable to tort liability law, the applicable law is also likely to point to the Japanese law as the law of the place where the result occurred. However, under the premise of a clear and appropriate law, Lin Wei, senior partner of the law firm, believes that if a passenger can prove that the shipowner has a corresponding fault, his request for a cruise claim may be supported.

How to claim?

Where do passengers go to court? Who to tell? Three years ago, Xie Zhenxian, President of the maritime court of the Shanghai maritime court, took over the first foreign cruise ship in China, that is, the case of compensation for major personal injury cases of the princess sapphire. He recalled the case and revealed that the case involved was British, so the dispute over the applicable law of foreign civil law was relatively large. In the end, he used the principle of the most significant relationship and decided to adopt the Chinese law to deal with it. 。

Xie Zhenxian explained that although we should consider the nationality of the shipowners, the nationality of the ship operators and the nationality of the passengers, we should also consider the passenger contracts. We should consider the place of signing, the departure port, the port of destination, the shipping company, the place of operation, the place where the infringement occurred and the infringing acts, especially the victim's domicile, habitual residence and port. "No matter what form it is, I feel that the principle of the most significant relationship applies well to the discretion of a adjudicator and the most reasonable and reasonable law applicable to case handling." Xie Zhenxian road.

Just such a huge public health and safety incident, affected by the huge, no country or enterprise can hardly pay separately. Therefore, Jia Peng believes that from the perspective of cost commitment, a cost sharing mechanism and system with government led, insurers, shipowners, individuals and international cooperation will be gradually formed. Yan Bing, a senior partner of Shanghai Xing Han law firm and an arbitrator of the China Maritime Arbitration Commission, also believes that commercial means are needed to make up for it. Insurance is an important means to manage social risks. For example, the environmental pollution caused by ship oil pollution is solved by the two compensation system including commercial insurance. The epidemic will eventually require commercial insurance.

In short, the encounter of the "Diamond Princess" cruise under the epidemic situation has brought a serious crisis teaching lesson to the port of China's coastal ports, which has been developing the cruise industry in full swing. From the perspective of "afterthought", this industry crisis is not an opportunity to improve and make up for the short board.

Another teaching case, that is, the experience of Princess supreme, will soon be observed on the US coastline. It is reported that US Vice President Burns met with representatives of the cruise industry in Florida on March 7th to discuss the best plan for dealing with the epidemic.

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