On the afternoon of June 2, 2020, Rao Wei, Member of Party Leadership Group and Vice President of Jinwan District People’s Court, led Director Cheng Yi of Administrative Division of the court and other four people visited Zhuhai Court, Member of Party Leadership Group and Vice President Wang Yufei and head of Maritime Administrative Division Zhang Kexiong of GZMC made a special trip to Zhuhai to join the talk. Both sides introduced their basic condition, administrative trail and court construction, discussed legal issues that may appear in clean-up of illegal aquaculture infrastructure in offshore waters which recently is carried out by Zhuhai, and made exchanges on how people’s court to regulate and suggest government act by law and make contribution to the building of the Greater Bay Areas. The whole talk lasted for more than two hours, with a hot atmosphere, the commonly concerned issues were fully discussed. After the talk, Rao said that he has gained a lot and formed a new understanding on maritime court and maritime trial, he will strengthen communication with GZMC and provide some assistance. Wang said that GZMC will study thoroughly on the legal issues related to clean-up of illegal aquaculture infrastructure in Zhuhai, thence to provide high quality maritime judicial service for the development of Zhuhai city and maritime economy, the two courts should enhance cooperation and learn from each other, and hope that Jinwan court will give their support and help to Zhuhai court.  

On the morning of May 20, 2020, President Zhang Chunhe of the Guangzhou Court of the Internet led a team to visit GZMC for research. Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and President Ye Liudong led Director Lin Xiaofeng of Personnel Department and some other court officials of Research Department and General Office had a talk with the guests. Accompanied by Ye, Zhang and his team visited litigation service center, the technology court, digital court, Guangzhou International Shipping Judicial Research Center, Guangzhou International MARITIIME Judicial Base of SPC, Law Branch of Guangzhou Library, executive command center, and watched GZMC promotional video. They held a talk after the visit. Ye introduced the building of Party, team and culture, informatization and the trial and execution, especially the process and the important junctions of the construction of the trial building, and sharing the experiences to the guests. Zhang thanked for the sharing, and said he will extract the experiences and the successful concepts to make it work on the construction of the trial building of GCI. Both two sides agreed that they should strengthen the cooperation and learn from each other, thus jointly promote the work of the two courts.  

On April 27, 2020, Zhuhai Court confirmed the settlement of a maritime personal injury case. A man Shao had his hand injured and two of his fingers broken while he was working on a fishing boat, after he was discharged from hospital, because he and his employer Liang cannot reached an agreement on compensation for lost income and so on, he sued in Zhuhai Court. Judge assistant Liu Yufei contacted them, and they both welcomed the court’s pre-litigation mediation. They confirmed the money Liang had already paid, but won’t compromise on liability and compensation, the tension was so high that they left the negotiation table. Liu continued his attempt on meditation, for half a month and the gap was narrowing, although settlement had not been made yet. In order the solve the dispute as soon as possible, Zhuhai Court enlisted the help with Xiangwan Street People’s Mediation Committee. After a whole morning of joint mediation of the court and the committee, they finally reached a settlement on April 27 and the documents was served on 28th, which marked the end of this dispute of antagonism. During mediation, the committee gave full play to its experiences on neighborhood dispute mediate and Zhuhai Court its maritime expertise. It is just one of the many cases handled by the court through multiple disputes settlement system, and also an illustration of diligence, solidity and coordination of the staff of Zhuhai Court.    

On May 22, 2020, the cooperation framework agreement signing ceremony, which was between Zhuhai Court and Zhuhai Water Transport Vocation Association, was held in the meeting room of Zhuhai high speed ferry co. LTD. The ceremony was presided by Chief Executive officer Pan Jianwen of the association and some people presented, they were Vice President Wang Yufei of GZMC and general manager Cai Sulan of Compliance Risk Center of Zhuhai Jiuzhou shareholding Co., Ltd and Board Chairman Li Jianbin of Zhuhai Zhuhai high speed ferry co. LTD. At the meeting, Cai and Pan firstly expressed their welcome and thanks to GZMC for their visiting service to enterprises. Pan said the agreement symbolized a service platform between the court and the association had been established for the construction of Zhuhai water transport vocation and the development of member units. In the future, the association will give full play to its role as bridge and bond and beef up cooperation with Zhuhai Court, by constantly improving member enterprises’ legal consciousness and risk control ability to resolve the dispute at source. Wang proposed that, firstly, we should adhere to the guidance of the Party construction to build a new platform for it and ensure all work is carried out orderly; secondly, we should adhere to complementing each other’s advantages, collaboration and stress practical results, and give full play to their functions, thence to jointly serve the building of the Greater Bay Area; thirdly, we should implement the agreement earnestly, make sure the settlement and implementation of it in Zhuhai. They made exchanges after the ceremony. Cai introduced the basic state and the operation situation during the coronavirus outbreak of the Jiuzhou company. Pan introduced the industry overview of Zhuhai water transport vocation and the impact of coronavirus on it. Wang introduced the work of GZMC for the proper settlement of the coronavirus-related disputes, and answered and exchanged on the virus-related legal questions.  

Between April 14 to 17, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and President Ye Liudong, leading Member of Party Leadership Group Li Weipeng and other office staffs visited intermediate people’s courts of Yangjiang, Maoming and Zhanjiang for research. In Yangjiang Intermediate People’s Court, Ye talked with President Chen Youqiang on setting maritime circuit court in Yangjiang areas. Chen introduced their special research and delivered the attention and warm welcome of Yangjiang Party Committee government for the setup of the circuit court. In Maoming Intermediate People’s Court, Ye made deep exchanges with President Jin Jun on Party building, team management, informatization and cultural development. They agreed that it is necessary to learn from each other’s advanced experiences and good practices, and provides qualified judicial services to ensure a good business environment. In Zhanjiang Intermediate People’s Court, accompanied by President Zhang Jianxiong, Ye visited the new building of the court, they shared experiences and achievements in infrastructure construction, judicial adjudication and coronavirus prevention and control measures. During the stay in Zhanjiang, Ye also led the director of Zhanjiang Court to visit the Politics and Law Committee of Zhanjiang Municipal Committee and talked with Executive Deputy Secretary Wang Sheng. Ye introduced institution setting, functional tasks and type of cases of GZMC. They reached consensuses on take Zhanjiang Court into the safety construction of the committee, general plan on comprehensive governance and uphold peace and dispute multiple settlement system, a liaison mechanism will be set up to promote the formation of a collaborative system, and to make it operate on a daily and regular basis. During the research days, Ye also led the team to En’ping People’s Court of Jiangmen, visited its court and history room and learned some its construction.  

On the afternoon of April 8, 2020, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General Cai Delin of Zhuhai Harbor Association was invited to Zhuhai court for an exchange of view, Director Wu Guining of the court made deep exchange with him on the issues of how to serve the local shipping and harbor enterprises and safeguard the building of the Greater Bay Area. Both of them proposed specific implementation plan on co-building multiple dispute resolution mechanism to improve enterprises’ risk control, sharing of industry information to legal consultancy services, and to further strengthen last year’s Framework on Cooperation Agreement. They also planned to make field research on enterprises to figure out the impact of the coronavirus and make preparation for handling the coronavirus-related disputes. After the meeting, Cai also presided over the pre-litigation meditation of the two local enterprises’ dispute over ship building contract. The two enterprises reached a meditation consensus and agreed to negotiate the settlement at Zhuhai Harbor Association office next week. Cai said that thanks to his own working experiences and industry knowledge, which makes the two party agree a lot, there is great hope that the dispute will be resolved before litigation. Next, the Association will invite specialists, scholars and business backbones from the member units to join the special maritime meditation team, to improve the multiple dispute resolution mechanism and practically solve the dispute at the beginning, thence to serve the local enterprises in a down-to-earth manner.  

In 2019, according to the general working concepts of “highlighting maritime features to build high-quality projects, standing on international frontier to serve the national strategies”, GZMC has formed a good innovative-and-enterprising-driven situation by the implementation of law enforcement and case handling, service ability improvement, exemplary maritime cases strategy, solving enforcement difficulties, building smart courts and educated people by party building. The following are the selected ten top events of GZMC in 2019: 1.Sea Law Institute of DMU, Guangzhou Branch and the Joint Cultivation Base for JM was inaugurated in GZMC. On January 24, 2019, the inauguration of the Sea Law Institute of DMU, Guangzhou Branch and the Joint Cultivation Base for JM was jointly made by President Ye Liudong of GZMC and Vice President Liu Zhengjiang of DMU. 2. Several cases were selected into “A Hundred Classical Cases” and a judgement won award. In January, there were eight cases chosen into “A Hundred Classical Cases” for the anniversary of 40 years reform and opening up of Guangdong courts, which ranking among the highest in the province. One judgement won the third price in the first nationwide selection of “A Hundred Excellent Judgement” in April. 3. Transparency of maritime justice ranked top three among maritime courts. On March 28, transparency of maritime justice of GZMC ranked top three among maritime courts in the Blue Book of Rule of Law, which jointly published by Institute of Law of CASS and Social Sciences Academy Press. Also, GZMC has pushed 137 period articles on its WeChat official account, and two of which were forwarding by the SPC. The short English video program “Voice of Judge” was promoted on the platform of “Learning Power” and won the award of “Excellent Popularization Knowledge of Law” in Guangdong province. 4.As the first batch unit to open the thematic educational activity of “Stay true to our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind”. The thematic educational activity of “Stay true to our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind” was carried out at the end of May, and by practicing stay true to assume the missions and fill the gap, GZMC also held a summary conference of it on September, 16. 5.The 27th National Maritime Trial Seminar was undertaken by GZMC. In July 12, the 27th National Maritime Trial Seminar was held in GZMC, Vice President Luo Dongchuan of SPC presented and made a speech, at which the papers of GZMC got a rich harvest in the amount and award. 6. The breakthrough in cross-regional case filing and online hearing On August, as a competent court, GZMC accepted the first cross-regional case by the cooperation between Guangdong and Shandong province, and 124 cases were hearing online in the whole year of 2019. 7.The achievement of “basically solving enforcement difficulties”. On August 31, the inspection team of Guangdong Higher People’s Court came to GZMC to review and heard the report of it. The notification and feedback were received from them on September, that GZMC has met the requirement of “basically solving enforcement difficulties”. 8. The activities for the celebration for the 70 anniversary of the founding of PRC. On September 26, GZMC released its video clip “Me and My Motherland” to celebrated the 70 anniversary of the founding of PRC. On 28th, Guangzhou Maritime law Forum was held in Nanzhou court building of GZMC, nearly 300 peoples presented and almost 100,000 clicks on its Internet live broadcast. 9. The breakthrough in targeted poverty alleviation. On December 6, the poverty exits examininggroup of Jieyang city went to Rongguang village, the poverty relief spot of GZMC, to audit whether it was qualified to meet the standard to cast off poverty. The final result was the agreement to it draw out of the relatively poverty village range. 10. Zhuhai Court successfully established the “Youth Civilization” of Guangdong provincial organs. It was the first one “Youth Civilization” of GZMC that established by Zhuhai Court on December 27 after two years’ effort. On 31st, Zhuhai Court was honored as the civilized organ of Guangdong province from 2017-2019 by Guangdong Provincial Work Committee and Guangdong Province Spiritual Civilization Construction Commission and circulated a notice of commendation.   

On the morning of March 27, 2020, arbitrators Huang Weiqing and Chen Xuebin of Guangzhou Arbitration Commission visited and had a discussion with GZMC on the issue of enforcement of arbitration award. Several court officials of GZMC presented, they were Member of the Party Leadership and Director of Executiion Bureau Song Weili, Deputy Chief Judge Chang Weiping of Commercial Division, Deputy Chief Judge Xu Chunlong of Case-filling Division and Yin Zhonglie and Shu Jian of Executiion Bureau. They made exchange on the enforceability of the arbitration award on matters of real right of ship and discussed the adjudication on the real right of ship and affiliation of ship. SPC is highly attentive to the coordination of case-filling, trial and execution, several articles are released from it to address the enforcement of judgement due to the insufficient relevant stipulations on the enforceability of the arbitration award. Because of the exclusivity and non-publicness of arbitration procedure, the Commission encountered many problems on determination of the ownership of ship and agreement on affiliation of ship, et al. It is a very useful exploration to address such problems through discussion and unify the understanding and practice of it, which shows that GZMC gives full respect and support to the development of arbitration and perform the duty of judicial supervision by operation of law. The settlement of such problems will make a contribution to creating a predicable law-based business environment in the Greater Bay Area.  

On the afternoon of March18, 2020, a lawyer in Guangzhou contacted Zhuhai court of GZMC, claiming  since his Hong Kong client’s Hong Kong-Macao floating ship sank after a collision, he was entrusted to apply for the arrest of a ship prior to litigation to realize maritime liens,  in which circumstance he need to sign the power of attorney face to face at the court. To protect the legitimate right of the  applicant, after reviewing materials and verifying the entry quarantine status of the applicant, the court agreed they come over and sign the power of attorney. Later the applicant claimed he traveled from Hong Kong to Zhuhai in a floating boat and did not touch any suspected or confirmed covid-19 patients. For he did not carry out the epidemic prevention test in the relevant domestic agencies, after negotiated with the community guards, two court officials witnessed the signature of the letter of attorney outside of the community in the rain. They wear masks and keep a proper distance with the visitors and washed hands and disinfected themselves after back to office. In the afternoon of the next day, two court officials went to Xinhui district of Jiangmen city to seize ship in rainy weather. In order to minimize the impact of covid-19 on embarkation, Zhuhai court contacted Xinhui office of Jiangmen Maritime Safety Administration several times and jointly made boarding plan ahead. The two court officials took precautions carefully and read the relevant legal and litigation guidance to the captain after inspecting the ship and registering the epidemic prevention of the crews. From the initial worry and resistance, the captain finally dispelled his misgivings and signed the ship detained document. Without a stop, they drove to send the document to Jiangmen Maritime Safety Administration, they successfully finished the task with a high efficiency. After the war of anti-coronavirus, Zhuhai court has been keeping alert, working hard to make trial without delay and epidemic prevention in control. As the first time to seizure ship after the outbreak of covid-19, CMZC responded to ship arrest application quickly to protect the applicant’s legitimate interests, which had been highly praised by the Hong Kong applicant.    

  On Feb 11, 2020, at the seventh court of the GZMC, Chen Jianhui, a villager from Lixi town of Yingde city of Guangdong province, after took his Crew Member of Vessel in Inland Waters Certificate and Seaman’s Record Book back, and received 10,000 RMB compensation through WeChat Pay at the spot from Chen Wenke, who had illegally detained his Certificate and the Book for more than four months. He withdrawn the suit at the court and wrote down the letter of thanks. This case started last year. On June, 2019, hired by Chen Wenke as chief engineer on the vessel of “YueShaoGuanhuo 3618”, Chen Jianhui was injured by a propeller at work and was sent to Nanhai Hospital for treatment at the same day. Chen Wenke paid for all his medical expenses and gave compensation for 55,000 RMB. That should be the end of the story, but Chen Wenke detained his Crew Member of Vessel in Inland Waters Certificate and Seaman’s Record Book after the insurance claim settlement procedure on the ground that he had paid an extra salary for 4,000 RMB. One cannot work on board without certificate, so Chen Jianhui came to GZMC to file a case, claiming for the return of the Certificate and the Book and the loss for the unable working period.The case accepted and scheduled to hearing on March 4, 2020 and presiding by judge Xu Yuanping. Judge Xu backed to his hometown Hubei province for the Spring Festival at the mid of the January but quarantined there for the outbreak of the coronavirus. The case is in such an urgent. Although blocked in affected area, but judge Xu never relax his nerve on this case, he made phone call to told his trial team that they should contact Chen Wenke to make clearall the detail of the case on the first day returning to work, explain to him the legal risk of deliberately detaining others certificate and told him that he should return it as soon as possible no matter if there any other dispute with Chen Jianhui. After repeated contacts, Chen Wenke took the advice of the team and delivered the certificate to GZMC. But the amount of compensation required by Chen Jianhuifor retaining the certificate was not settled. On the afternoon of Feb 10, Chen Jianhui told the team that in order to find a job early, he wants to come to GZMC to get his certificate back, and repeated the request on the nest day morning. After learning that, judge Xie Huicheng of the team,considering the risk of infection, asked the team use WeChat and telephone to meditate the dispute. Chief judge Xu, who quarantined in Hubei province, guide the judge assistant through telephone to reviewing the whole case and analysed the possible responsibilities of the two parties. Finally, reconciliation reached, Chen Wenke paid compensation of 10,000 RMBto Chen Jianhui through WeChat Pay, Chen Jianhuiwithdrawn the suit at the spot. The dispute was successfully resolved. Epidemic is merciless, Judgesare merciful. Confronting with the outbreak of the virus, the judges of the Admiralty Division tie their heart with the people. Though being caught in epidemic area, judge Xu’s heart attach to trial. Admiralty Division had developed the thought of “unit as one” and judge assistant Zhang Rong undertaken voluntarily, they all do their best to safeguard people’s life securityand health and protect their legitimate rights and interests.