Abstract Taiwan is surrounded by an ocean with abundant marine resources. It is a typical island-nation with an excellent geological location. Taiwan¡¦s trade, traffic, and fishing industries rely heavily on the ocean their main natural mediation channel. Thus, the marine policy has always been the government¡¦s main administrative focus. Apart from continuing to protect marine ecological resources and promote the policy of marine environment sustainability, the government of Taiwan also actively promotes marine-related projects related to technological research and development, reuse of resources, and industrial development. Since 2008 and after four signed agreements of cross-strait marine transport, the cross-strait bilateral relation has moved toward a stable development, and the policy of cross-strait exchange has been loosened. This has enabled the maritime transport between Mainland China and Taiwan to increase enormously into large-scale bilateral marine transport. The geological position of the Taiwan Strait- long with the safety of maritime navigation in the area- is now far more important as the number of marine transport, fishing vessels, and shipwrecks has increased rapidly. These have all significantly highlighted the issue of marine search and rescue. Marine search and rescue is a humanitarian act. It is an obligatory duty of those involved in marine search and rescue operations to rescue those facing danger during maritime activities. Therefore, under the principle of highly valuing issues related to both bilateral parties across the Taiwan Strait, this thesis analyzes the procedures and practices of mutual marine search and rescue based on cross-strait marine search and rescue mechanisms. This thesis proposes, a systematic model of cooperation with a precondition of not endangering bilateral sovereignty. The example of the Kinmen and Xiamen areas as the shortest distance between Mainland China and Taiwan is the focus of analysis. The discussion emphasizes how to establish the fastest and most efficient joint search and rescue mechanisms within the shortest distance so that the model can be adopted in other areas of the Taiwan Strait and even beyond to create a safer global marine environment. Key words: marine search and rescue, marine salvage, regional cooperation, joint search and rescue mechanisms, Kinmen, Xiamen

The journey towards insolvency is often a gradual process, thus enabling a business or person in most circumstances to be aware of the danger ahead if adequate precautions are not taken. This position is recognized by the Statute, hence the definition given to a financially distressed company under the Companies Act1 to mean inability to pay all its debts within the immediately ensuring six months or the likelihood of going insolvent within the immediately ensuring six months. Rescue mechanisms are therefore aimed at ensuring that when faced with the signs of insolvency, a business for instance can be properly driven to become solvent again or at least restructured to achieve better realization of assets.2 Indeed, providing alternatives to insolvency is fast becoming a global trend as many countries now appreciate the need to give a person or business experiencing difficult times, the opportunity to rise again without necessarily going through the rigors of liquidation or sequestration. South Africa is not left out in the quest to assist over-indebted persons and provide them with alternative measures beside insolvency. The National Credit Act3 for instance seeks as one of its objectives to prevent over-indebtedness and where it occurs address same by means of debt rearrangement. This is in addition to certain provisions of the Magistrate CourtP a g e Act4 which allow a debtor the option of applying for an administration order and where granted make payment in instalments. The Companies Act also provides for business rescue as well as compromise between company and creditors.5 This research in brief analyses the above mentioned laws in South Africa that provide alternative measures for financially troubled or over-indebted debtors as applicable to corporate and non-corporate entities. The research considers whether these laws are sufficient to assist debtors in financial crisis, the effectiveness of these laws, challenges as well as loopholes taking into consideration what is applicable in other jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The end of this research contains recommendations that would assist in achieving effective rescue mechanisms or alternatives to insolvency beneficial to both corporate and noncorporate entities in South African. Copyright / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Mercantile Law / unrestricted