In the afternoon of November 5th, the 2021 Guangdong Maritime Trial Working Conference was held in Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC). The executive vice-president and the Deputy Secretary of the Leading Party  Members’ Group of the High People’s Court of Guangdong Province, Zhong Jianping attended the conference and gave a speech. The president and the Secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group of GZMC, Chen Chao, spoke on the conference. The working conference was presided by the vice-president and member of the Leading Party Members’ Group of GZMC, Wang Yufei. There were over 60 attendants, including judges and judge assistants from GZMC and  Guangdong High People’s Court.   

Vice-president Zhong Jianping mentioned in his speech that judges and judge teams working in maritime trials should stay loyal to their political conviction, be responsible and against corruption, and ensure the purity of judicial process. Zhong also mentioned that the efficiency and quality of maritime trial case handling should be improved, and there should be more attention paid in research and case analysis. In conclusion, the efforts mentioned above should be made in order to better complete the maritime trial works for Guangdong province in the new era.   

Chao pointed out that doing a good job in maritime trial is both meaningful and honorable. GZMC should take this conference as an opportunity and play its role of handling foreign-related maritime cases to the largest extent. It should also take solid steps to implement strategies that do ensure and improve maritime trial quality, and make further efforts to unify the standards of judgement. GZMC should provide guarantee and high-quality judicial service for building the Greater Bay Area.  

The Deputy Chief Judge of the Forth Civil Division of Guangdong High People’s Court, Rao Qing, reported the information about maritime trials in Guangdong High People’s Court in 2020. Among the 196 closed, second-instance maritime cases, 22 were changed from their original judgements, and 2 were remanded for retrial. The rate of judgement amendment or retrial was 12.2%. According to the 2020 case handling overview, first-instance maritime cases were handled with better quality, and the rate of judgement amendment or retrial had been kept on a relatively low level. The statistics conveyed that the working strategy of maritime trial communication developed by the courts of Guangdong at two levels had achieved significant improvement in unifying standards of maritime judgement and improving the maritime trial quality of Guangdong province.

The Head of Adjudication Management Office, Liang Zhanxin, the Deputy Chief Judge of the Forth Civil Division, Gu Enzhen, and the judge of the Case-filing Division of Guangdong High People’s Court, Wang Xiaoqin, gave a lecture about their methods and experiences of writing issuance of judgement and case analysis. Judges and judge assistants discussed complicated issues such as law application for sea towage contract dispute.