Separate Institutions of Private International Law of the Sea: General Average, Maritime Bail, Salvage of Ships and other Property at Sea

General average, maritime lien, salvage of ships and other property at sea are ancient institutions of the law of the sea, which tend to remain quite significant despite the flow of time. Moreover, they gained a unique status of fundamental principles of maritime law. Legal relations connected with the institutions often comprise international elements due to the features of merchant shipping. It results in the issues concerning the choice of law. Significance of the institutions of the private international law of the sea can be illustrated by the process of international unification of the existing maritime customs in the form of conventions or unified contract rules. The international and domestic legal regulation of the general average, maritime lien, salvage of ships and other property at sea plays the role of the tightrope walker who attempts to strike a balance among vessel owners, cargo owners, insurers and rescuers. The objective of the research is to find out the problematic aspects in legal regulation of the institutions. As a result of the work, several conclusions have been made. Firstly, the arguments of the opponents of general average are reasonably made but the consequences of its abandonment are unpredictable due to the behavior of the masters of the vessels at the time of the danger to the common maritime venture. More than that, in its absence, most of the expenses in the port of refugee will lie on the vessel owners. This fact is in contradiction with the equity principle which nowadays exists due to the general average. Maritime lien is an effective method of protecting the interests of the creditors because of its secret and privileged character. It is also worth noting that special compensation paid to the rescuers should be calculated on the tariff system basis.