Member of Party Leadership Group and Vice President Hu Ying and Director Yang Ming and Vice Director Yang Jie of Executive Board of Guangdong Higher People’s Court came to GZMC on July 31, 2019. The work of “basically solving enforcement difficulties” of GZMC were evaluated and reviewed by them, and they operated research and guidance for us under the theme of “remain true to our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind”. President Ye made a report of the main methods and achievements in the work of “basically solving enforcement difficulties” in more than three years of GZMC, and analyzed the difficulties and problems in execution circle, application of enforcement measures and the construction of enforcement difficulties solving mechanism. And he suggested that the maritime executive should separately assessed, GZMC should be taken into combined execution of various departments under the leadership of provincial Party committee and strengthen the executive team building. Hu said that after listening to the report from Ye, he felt that GZMC do well in execution, morale of the executive staffs is high, the quality index and key work are complete in accordance with the requirement of higher court, and they solve difficulties effectively by the combination of maritime cases and team status and further explore a work mode which meet the regulation in maritime trial and enforcement. As to the difficulties and the request of GZMC, he will strive to solve it as soon as possible.He hoped that GZMC will promote its execution into a high level combined with “Five Year Plan Outline” and improve its auxiliary and supporting facilities to keep its lead in maritime courts. Hu also inspected the command center actually works and visited the Internet courtroom and Guangzhou International Maritime Judicial Base of the Supreme People’s Court.  

The 27th national maritime trial seminar successfully held at the 3rd-floor meeting hall in the new trial building of GZMC on July 12, 2019. About 110 peoples of leaders, research office directors, paper authors from ten maritime courts, chief judges and judge representatives from Superior People’s Courts and special speakers attended the meeting. Member of the Party Leadership and Vice President Luo Dongchuan, Director Wang Shumei and the judge team of Civil Adjudication Tribunal NO.4 of the Supreme People’s Court presented and Luo made a speech for it. Luo pointed out that maritime trial theoretical research is the basis of judicial service for maritime power strategy, the important measures to improve the maritime legal system, the key to enhancing maritime judicial capacity and the window to demonstrate China maritime judicial image. And it should stir into the right political direction, by providing theoretical support for the improvement of relevant legislation and unified judicial adjudication criterion for promoting the maritime trial system and modernization of trial ability. He requested that the current and the future period of time, maritime trial should focus on meeting the priority tasks of the Party and the government and take into consideration both the domestic and the international situations, by deepening the implementation of maritime trial high-quality strategy and make steady headway in the construction of international maritime judicial center as a crucial step, to improve the level of it in perspective in serve the overall interests, high-quality in case handling, systematic in system construction, informatization in litigation service and specialization in team construction, thence provide a strong justice service guarantee for the Belt and Road Initiative and other implementation of major decisions and arrangements of the state and the Party. The theme of this meeting is to carry out the important spirit of the speeches in maritime trial made by President Zhou Qiang and Vice President Luo Dongchuan, research the measures of maritime judicial service for the Belt and Road, Yangtze R    iver Economic Zone, free trade zone and the Greater Bay area, discuss the amendment of Special Maritime Procedure Law, electronic evidence in maritime trial and other issues in trial practice and exchange maritime trial experiences.Twelve winning paper authors made presentations around the theme, and specialists gave their incisive comment to it. Presidents of maritime courts made exchanges in maritime judicial service in national strategy during the president parallel forum. Some chief judges and senior judges also made thorough discussions in voyage charter party, actual carrier, the port operator and multimodal transport contract. There were 96 papers submitted to the seminar and 29 of them were from GZMC, which had a rich harvest in the amount and awards. Judge Xu Chunlong made a speech in the meeting.  

Shipping Law Research Institute of Guangdong Province Law Society, 2019 CSAE of Traffic Law Research Institute of Guangzhou Law Society and the founding congress of Guangzhou Shipping Law Research Society convened in GZMC on the morning of June 29, 2019. The opening ceremony was presided by lawyer Zhao Shuzhou of Wang Jing & Co., President of GZMC Ye Liudong and Vice Secretary-General of Guangdong Province Law Society Xue Xiaoguang made an opening speech for it. President Ye emphasized that unmanned ships are the latest outcome of technological innovation, and it has become the hot topic in maritime circles with its increasingly maturity. So we should seize the opportunity and plan in advance, by explore and establish rules for unmanned ships and related law issues so that the Great Bay Area can have a say in it. In the first session of the meeting, the discussion on the issue of “Compensation for Vessel-Induced Oil Pollution Damage” was presided by Ni Xuewei, who is the Vice-chairman of Shipping Law Research Institute of Guangdong Province Law Society and Director of Research Office of GZMC. Some people put forward their views and analyzed some relevant law issues of it, they were Director Xu Guangyu of Guang Yu & Co., Director Yang Yunfu of Yang&LinCo. Law Firm and judge Wu Guining of GZMC. Guo Ping, Vice Chairman of Shipping Law Research Institute of Guangdong Province Law Society and Professor of School of Law of Sun Yat-senUniversity, chaired the second discussion of “Relevant Law Issues related to Unmanned Ships”. Several people shared their thoughts on the unmanned ships and analyzed the relevant legal issues of it. And director Pan Deng of Yunzhou Intelligent technology co., LTD explained the fast technological development of unmanned ships from the perspective of intelligent system design. The meeting was a great success.  

Sponsored by China Maritime Arbitration Commission(CMAC), China Maritime Justice and Arbitration Summit 2019 was held in Shanghaion May 22, 2019. The theme of this Summit was “challenges, innovations and prospects for China maritime justice and arbitration in the New Era”, about 350 peoples from courts, arbitrator and lawyers circles, enterprises, the bar and academic institutes were present. The opening ceremony was presided by the Secretary-General of CAMC Gu Chao. Vice president of the Supreme People’s Court Luo Dongchuan, member of the Standing Committee and Executive Vice Mayor of Shanghai Chen Yin and Vice President of CCPIT and Vice Director of CAMC Lu Peng attended and made speechest. Chief Judge Wang Shumei of Civil Adjudication Tribunal NO.4 of the Supreme People’s Court delivered a keynote speech for the Summit on “Diversified Dispute Settlement Mechanism and Construction of the International Maritime Justice Center”. In his speech, Luo pointed out that at the backdrop of the deepening implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, it embraces an important practical significance for CMAC to host this Summit. He emphasized we should steadily expand the international influence of China maritime justice by giving full play to maritime trial and by promoting the development of the principles and rules of international laws through more typical cases. To promote the quality of maritime arbitration, we should further improve judicial support and supervisory mechanisms on maritime arbitration. We should give priority to the non-litigation resolution of disputes and provide convenience for maritime arbitration institution to take part in multiple dispute settlement mechanism construction, thence to build a China maritime arbitration brand with an international influence. By supporting and guiding maritime courts and CAMC and other arbitration institutions to build a dispute settlement platform of organic linking for arbitration, conciliation and litigation, we can practically improve the efficiency of maritime disputes settlement. Finally, we should resolutely promot the amendment of Maritime Law and start the research on the revision of Special Maritime Procedure Law as soon as possible, actively participate in the drafting and formulation of the relevant international maritime conventions, thus contribute Chinese wisdom to the perfection of international maritime rules. Director of Research Office Ni Xuewei of GZMC was invited to the Summit and he talked about “maritime justice’s support and supervision for maritime arbitration” when it came to the third topic “analysis and practice of hot issues of maritime justice and arbitration in the‘Belt and Road’”. According to the latest judicial cases, Ni emphatically introduced how maritime justice support and supervises maritime arbitration, he gave some advice on the revision of Arbitration Law, like adding non-organization arbitration and moderate judicial review of the substantive matters in arbitration.  

Report on Maritime Trial 2018 issued by GZMC in the press conference on May 17, 2019, which is the third time of such and the only onein Chinese, English and Portuguese and the ninth consecutive time to publish it in Chinese and English since 2010.   White Paper on Maritime Trial is contained more than 20,000 words and divided into nine parts. Concerning the issues of creditor’s registration procedures, freight forwarding, port warehousing, terminal leasing, fishery rights, marine ecological environment, maritime administrative litigation, non-litigation disputes, and execution procedures, it put forward some suggestions base on analyzing the causes and interpreting the risks, which is aims to help shipping market entities prevent risks actively and to guide maritime administrative organs to strengthen law-based administration,thence jointly make new contributions to the new development of the shipping industry in the new era.   The Trial also reports the problems found during the operation of the shipping market in maritime trial and put forward eight advises to GZMC as a state adjudicatory organization accordingly. The conference was cover by several media.  

On the morning of May 6, 2019, including Wang Xinpeng, five students of School of Law of Xiamen University visited GZMC and for their study on international judicial dialogue(IJD) and the innovative role of Chinese courts in the implementation of the Belt and Road initiative. Director Ni Xuewei warmly received them. Court of law are the main protagonists in IJD. GZMC has done much itself and enriched it including judges visits and exchanges, participation in international conventions establishment, cllegiate-benching people’s assessors from HK and Macao, application of foreign laws in accordance with conflict rules, recognition and execution of foreign court’s judgements. Ni introduced to the guests that in maritime trial, maritime parallel litigation, forum non conveniens, international comity and so on are frequently adopted as ways of IJD while finding and application of foreign laws are a kind of it. How do we keep a balance between national judicial sovereignty and recognition and execution of foreign judgements? The points lies with the comprehension and application of the premiss of reciprocity and execution of foreign judgements on reciprocity. GZMC has actively conducted multinational justice dialogue in various forms under the Belt and Road initiative and the Greater Bay Area construction. Wang and his companions also visited the new trial building, litigation service center, the technology court, Guangzhou Maritime Judicial Base of the Supreme People’s Court, Law Branch of Guangzhou Library and watched the five-minute publicity film of the court. Vice director Xu Chunlong introduced to the guests the specific practices of legal services provided by Case-filling Division for mariners and other disadvantaged groups.  

President Ye was invited to the maritime finance and law high-end summit of The First China “Dongjiang”Shipping Industry Week 2019 on April 23, 2019, and made a summary statement for the conference as an expert. Director Ni Xuewei and Secretary of the Party Group Bai Shaguang also attended it. The conference was co-hosted by Management Committee of Tianjin Dongjiang Bonded Port Area, Tianjin Maritime Court and China Maritime Arbitration Commission. More than 60 industry experts, who come from China Maritime Arbitration Commission, Institute of International Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shanghai and Dalian Maritime Court, EIBC, leasing companies and shipping companies, were present the conference. They opened discussion on a raft of hot issues in maritime finance and law area, including Prevention of Vessels Financing Risks, Value Assessment with Charted Ships and Ships Asset Transaction, International Sanctions and Validity of Marine Insurance and Identification ofLeasing Vessels Ownership and Undertaking Tort Liability. During the professional review session, Ye pointed out that financial lease of vessels is a new type of financial operation mode that integrate with finance, ship trade and shipping service. The revision of Maritime Law has entered a critical stage, whether the financial lease of vessels should be regulated as an independent chapter needs thorough discussion and full demonstration. A major challenge arises when it comes to maritime trial practice, as cases related to financial lease of vessels disputes are in a small quantity while large in the object of dispute financially, where new situations and problems keep cropping up and related laws but regulations are not comprehensive and consummate. For its advantages of efficiency, flexibility, low-cost and confidentiality, we should give full play to the role of maritime arbitration in terms of financial lease of vessels cases, and actively guide the parties to choose from multiple disputes settlement mechanisms like arbitration to solve their problems.  

On the morning of April 11, 2019,Deputy Mayor Luo Yi of Yantian District of Shenzhen and Vice Director General Wu Guowei of Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of Yantian District and other three people visited Shenzhen Court, and they were warmly received by Director Cheng Shengxiang. Cheng showed Luo around the offices, the courtrooms and case filling hall and introduced the infrastructures and informatization of Shenzhen Court and held a talk after that. During the talk, Cheng introduced the general information of Shenzhen Court while Deputy Director Lin Yiyi further detailed in the combination of the judges’ team, the characteristics of the enrolled cases, some classical cases and research achievements and finally displayed the publicity film. Luo said that Yantian District thrived from Yantian Port, the Port and industries of harbors, sea transportation and logistics behind it carried heavy weight with the district. Shenzhen Court has long served as a safeguard for social equity and justice over the years since it foundation.Yantian District is undergoing diversified transformation and upgrading economically, as a core in the economic circle of sea transportation and logistics in the future, its development also partly depends on Shenzhen Court. As for the difficulties in daily work and life of Shenzhen Court, Luo said he will try his best to solve themby coordinating with other departments as soon as possible, thus to make it more convenient for the court to operate. Finally, they reached a consensus on strengthening communication and serve the Greater Bay Area's construction and Shenzhen international marine center city jointly.  

In order to fully implement judicial safeguards function and provide high-quality judicial services for the Greater Bay Area development and for strengthening the interaction with universities, President Ye led a team to Law School of Shenzhen University for research on March 29, 2019. Secretary of the Party Committee Li Weiying and Dean Ye Weiping of Law School of Shenzhen University warmly received the research group and chaired an in-depth meeting with them. Dean Ye presented to the group its achievements in scientific research, discipline construction and talent cultivation, especially the research in International Law, Hong Kong Law and Macao Law since the establishment of the Law School. He made a strong case for initiating cooperation with GZMC, said it could better serve the creation of a rule-of-law business environment in Bay Area by giving full play to the practical experiences of judges in GZMC and profound theoretical theory of experts and professors in Law School. President Ye pointed out that standing in the center of the Bay Area and the Law School is well-known nationwide, Shenzhen University has gained a strong momentum in its development especially excels in the research of International law, Hong Kong Law and Macao Law, we hope it can bring its superiority into full play and cooperate with GZMC to jointly provide intelligent support for the construction of Greater Bay Area. Ye also introduced the general information of ours, typically achievements and plans for the building of the Area. During the meeting, both parties opened discussion on practical issues including extraterritorial law identification, translation and paraphrase and ability training for the crew of GZMC conducted by Law School, they also agreed to establishing a liaison mechanism.    

On March 21, 2019, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Director of Personnel Department Lin Xiaofeng led the crew of Zhuhai court to Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Zhuhai and Zhuhai Port Holdings for research.   When in Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Director of the Bureau Xu Zhijun made exchanges with the group on the issues of executive functions changes after institutional reform, difficulties in enforcing judgments of ownership alteration of fishing vessels, problems in governing the ones both registered in Hongkong or Macau and recorded in Guangdong, to name a few. Director Lin said that as the administrative department of fisheryin Zhuhai, the Bureau will meet more problems in the process of administrative management and administrative law enforcement, but is also more experienced, and he hoped for  strengthened communication with the Bureau to jointly contribute to the healthy development of fishery in Zhuhai against the backdrop of the Greater Bay area. Xu welcomed the idea and said the requirement of law-based administration are higher during the construction of the Greater Bay Area, the close communication with GZMC could help them to better regulate their daily enforcement and operation. Both parties also reached a preliminary consensus on publicizing and promoting legal knowledge for fishermen.   At Zhuhai Port Holdings, Deputy Secretary of CPC and Director of the company Zhen Honglun held talks with the group. They opened discussion on practical problems, including jurisdiction of administrative litigation arising from  port anti-monopoly punishment, application of Regulation of Inland Waterway Freight  as contract clauses after its abolishment, determination of foreign litigants, amongst other topics. Short-term training in ZHP’s relevant subsidiaries for our judges will happen. If condition permits, in batches can our judges, assistants and court clerks experience specific harbor and logistics business all the way themselves in-house,  thus to make them more conversant with the ins and outs of the jobs as well as conventions or usages of the harbor and shipping industry. In this way not only can we enhance our judicial ability but also find out loopholes in legislation manifested during the operation of harbor and shipping enterprises, thence better serve  maritime judicial practice in the Greater Bay Area.