Rules for the Calculation of Common Pecuniary Losses

The common allowance calculation rules are an important guarantee for the common allowance system to achieve risk sharing and interest balance. With the development of shipping practices, existing calculation rules face new issues concerning expense recognition, procedural connection, and special risk handling. This paper takes the 2022 "Common Maritime Loss Calculation Rules of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade" as the main research object and compares them with the 2016 "York-Antwerp Rules" and the current "Maritime Law of the People's Republic of China". Based on existing research and judicial practice, it analyzes four issues: expenses after a port of refuge and transfer port, environmental pollution-related expenses, efficiency of the calculation procedure, and the determination of pirate ransom. The study finds that the current rules remain unclear in the connection of expenses after a second port of refuge and transfer port, the exceptional recognition of pollution prevention and reduction expenses, procedural diversion, and the treatment of pirate ransom and incidental expenses. Accordingly, this paper proposes clarifying the scope and attribution of port-of-refuge expenses, adopting a rule of "principle exclusion and exception inclusion" for environmental expenses, improving submission deadlines and simplified calculation procedures, and clarifying the recognition and allocation standards for pirate ransom and related reasonable expenses.