Recently, 13 newly-appointed mediators accepted the offer and went on duty. Under the cooperation of Guangzhou Maritime Court and China Maritime Arbitration Commission, the working mechanism of admiralty dispute entrusting mediation is put into implementation officially.

President Ye Liudong of Guangzhou Maritime Court said, to improve the cohesive mechanism between litigation and non-litigation resolution of admiralty dispute, last August, Guangzhou Maritime Court and China Maritime Arbitration Commission signed a memorandum of cooperation on establishing a working mechanism of admiralty dispute entrusting arbitration and mediation and reached a consensus. To further ensure the standardization and normalization of the mechanism, promote the positive interaction between maritime judicature and maritime arbitration and to enhance the cooperation with China Maritime Arbitration Commission, both sides officially start to carry out the work of admiralty dispute entrusting mediation on the basis of the signed memorandum of cooperation.

President Ye Liudong of Guangzhou Maritime Court also pointed out that, the entrusting mediation mechanism will be able to give full play to the characteristics and advantages of the expert mediation mechanism, including the mediators’ extensive arbitration experience, comprehensive technologies, recognition of the shipping industry. The mechanism not only conforms with the actual need of the parties, but also effectively releases the pressure of the court in case handling and reasonably allocates the judicial resources. In 2018, Guangzhou Maritime Court will gradually increase the quantity of entrusting mediation cases and improve the litigation efficiency, so as to handle and solve more cases concerned maritime matters in a quick, convenient, fair and harmony way.

 

On Nov. 29^th, 2017, Indonesian “SC Warrior” Vessel exploded which caused the sailors injured. Recently, for the advancing payment of medical expenses of five sailors, an applicant filed an application to Guangzhou Maritime Court for the arrest of the vessel involved. Guangzhou Maritime Court opened a green pass immediately. They made documents for the arrest at that night and hurried to the wharf to implement the arrest on the next day. When going onboard beside the “SC Warrior”, Guangzhou Maritime Court communicated and coordinated with the two parties and helped to bring about an agreement between the applicant and the respondent upon the guarantee. At last, the applicant withdrew the applicant for the arrest of vessel and the two parties both expressed their satisfaction for the result.

On the night of Nov. 29th, 2017, Indonesian “SC Warrior” Vessel exploded during the tank washing procedure and caused 5 sailors injured, including 3 serious injuries and 2 minor injuries. On the afternoon of Jan. 3th, applicant Xie filed an application to Guangzhou Maritime Court for the arrest of the vessel involved which was owned or bare-boat chartered by the respondent and berthing at the Guangzhou Port for the reason that he paid the advancing payment of medical expenses for 5 injuries in the explosion of “SC Warrior” Vessel, including Yan. He also requested Guangzhou Maritime Court to order the respondent to provide guarantee.

Upon review, Guangzhou Maritime Court held that the applicant’s application for the arrest of vessel is in accordance with the laws and regulations, they opened a green pass for the parties immediately. The judges worked overtime till 11pm at night until they have finished the documents for the arrest. The next day, the judges hurried to the wharf and implemented the arrest. Beside the wharf, the judges communicated and coordinated with the applicant and the respondent with patience. At last, the respondent agreed to provide guarantee and the applicant withdrew the application for the arrest of vessel. The two sides reached an agreement upon the guarantee issue. Finally the case was closed and both sides are satisfied with the result.

 

 

On the morning of Jan. 11^th, 2018, the third meeting of the Fifteenth Guangzhou People’s Congress was solemnly opened at Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention Center. Municipal Party Secretary Ren Xuefeng, Chairman Liu Yuelun of the Committee of Guangzhou People's Political Consultative Conference attended the meeting hosted by Director Chen Jianhua of the Standing Committee of Guangzhou People' s Congress. Mayor Wen Guohui delivered a report on the work of the government. President Ye Liudong of Guangzhou Maritime Court attended the meeting with Vice-president Huang Weiqing and Vice-president Wang Yufei as observers.

Guangzhou Maritime Court sent out an advisory service team of four, including Director Ni Xuewei of Judicial Supervision Division, Judge Wu Guining, Judge Assistant Geng Lijun and Ouyang Di, to provide advisory service for the deputies of People’s Congress. Mayor Wen Guohui and Director Chen Jianhua of the Standing Committee of Guangzhou People' s Congress met with the advisory service team cordially. The team answered comprehensively to the questions raised by Deputy Zhuang Weiyan about the trial, preventive measures, assessment and accreditation of cases involving marine environmental pollution, then, gave the 2016 Guangzhou Maritime Court Report on Trials in three languages of Chinese, English and Portuguese to the deputies as presents.

In the past year, the economic strength of Guangzhou improved steadily and the pace of innovation has accelerated markedly. The emerging industry continued to grow. The "Three go, one drop, one supplement" Policy has scored obvious results. Social governance was strengthened. According to the requirements of “four insists, three supports and two front ranks” and the general objective of “striving to make people to feel the justice and fairness in very judicial case”, Guangzhou Maritime Court, a special court dealing with maritime litigation, made every effort to provide excellent judicial safeguard service for the Belt and Road Initiative and the Strategies of constucting the Guangzhou international shipping center,the Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, of building Guangdong into a powerful maritime province and China into a maritime power. In 2017, there are 2614 new cases and 616 remained cases last year tried by the judges of Guangzhou Maritime Court, 2806 cases claiming for CNY 7.351 billion of which are concluded in the same year. The amounts of trial, conclusion and claim are increased by 7.1%, 16.8% and 16.2% over the last year respectively. Judges at the front line concluded 100.2 trials per person this year. They made important contribution to the construction of building Guangdong into the safest,fairest,and the most stable region with the best legal environment.

After the meeting, President Ye Liudong came to the service counter to inquire about the advisory service and accepted the reporters’ interview.

 

 

At the beginning of the year, Judges Zhang Kexiong and Yang Yaxiao of Maritime Administrative Division of Guangdong Maritime Court were invited to give lessons to Huizhou Division of Guangdong Oceanic Fishery Administration for research and communication.

Judge Zhang Kexiong gave a lecture on the topic of Maritime Administrative Trials and Administrative Enforcement of Marine Fisheries for nearly 40 backbones of Huizhou Division. He focused on the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Maritime Court on maritime administrative cases, which effectively helps the executors of marine fishery administrative division to clarify their misunderstanding between exclusive jurisdiction of maritime courts and centralized jurisdiction of railway transportation courts on administrative cases. At the same time, he reviewed the issues that he found and abstracted in the cases involving the marine fishery administrative divisiontried by the Maritime Administrative Division of Guangzhou Maritime Court in recent years. The lecture was a lively law lesson as it was closely related to the legality of administrative enforcement, which the executors at the front line care about.

The two judges also held talks and communicated with the fishery administrative enforcement backbones, answered their questions about the enforcement procedure and the application of laws and regulations and won their consistent praise. This communication was a good publicity of the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Maritime Court on maritime administrative cases, fully showed the specialty and fairness of Guangzhou Maritime Court on maritime administrative trial.

 

On the morning of Jan.5th, 2018, Political Commissar Kong Siping, Deputy Director General Sui Guoqing of Zhaoqing Maritime Safety Administration, Director Su Yu, Vice-director Kang Huawei of Law Enforcement Supervision Division, Vice-captain Cheng Yuanlin of Marine Patrol Division, Director Jiang Chao of Gaoyao Maritime Safety Division visited Guangzhou Maritime Court. Tasked by President Ye Liudong, Vice-president Huang Weiqing held talks and communicated with the guests about the issues related to administration by laws under the topic of ‘New Concepts, New Ideas and New Strategies of Xi Jinping’s Thought on the Governance of China’.

Vice-president Huang gave a warm welcome to the guests and briefly introduced the overall working condition of Guangzhou Maritime Court in 2017. He reviewed the good interaction and cooperation in the arrest and registration of vessels with Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration, especially Zhaoqing Maritime Safety Administration.Then Vice-president Huang had full communication and explanation with the guests on the issues found in the judicial practice,including the determination procedures and treatment of ownerless vessels, the identified conditions and evidence collection in the application for ownerless vessels and how to apply for negotiorum gestio of ownerless vessels.

Political Commissar Kong expressed gratitude to Vice-president Huang for the warm reception. He pointed out that, to better serve the strategic layout of the People's Government of Guangdong Province of building up theXijiang River into a golden waterway, Zhaoqing Maritime Safety Administration will further strengthen the work on maritime administrative enforcement and management by strengthening the law enforcement and supervision of ships with "three noes", ships not conform with the certificates, ships excavating sands in the river without license, so as to develop a beautiful Xijiang River under governance by laws.

Director Xiong Shaohui of Maritime Administrative Division, Director Ni Xuewei of Judicial Supervision Division of Guangzhou Maritime Court also attended the talks.

 

On the morning of Dec. 18, 2017, Brenda Hannigan, head of Southampton Law School and Professor of Southampton Institute of Maritime Law, Dr Jenny Jingbo Zhang of Southampton Law School visited Guangzhou Maritime Court and held an academic seminar for academic exchange with judges and judge assistants of Guangzhou Maritime Court.

President YeLiudong, on behalf of Guangzhou Maritime Court, gave a warm welcome to the two, and introduced the basic information of the court. President Ye said, Southampton Law School leads the world(is at the cutting edge) in the field of maritime law research, especially the Southampton Institute of Maritime Law, which covers the research of maritime law(ship collision, oil contamination, limitation of liability, etc.), law of carriage of goods by sea(chartering, bill of lading, etc.), marine insurance act, law of the international sale of goods, international commercial arbitration law, international jurisdiction, law of the sea and etc.. He indicated that this academic seminar will provide the judges and judge assistants some guidance and insight into the latest updates and trends of maritime law research.

Basing on the topic of cross-border group insolvency Professor Brenda Hannigan talked about the methods of Britain’s courts in handling legal affairs in respect of cross-border insolvency. She introduced the 2015 European Act in terms of insolvency liquidation among European Union countries, 1997 UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency and the effect of these unified regulations in practice.

Dr Jenny Jingbo Zhang started fr om the document of title of bill of lading under English Law, analyzed the carrier’s liability over delivery of goods without original bill of lading under order bill of lading and straight bill of lading, the relationship among letter of guarantee, exception clause, electronic bill of lading and carrier's responsibility of delivery of goods without original bills of lading.

Judges and judge assistants of Guangzhou Maritime Court exchanged in-depth views and had a heated discussion on the interested topics with Professor Brenda Hannigan and Dr Jenny Jingbo Zhang.

President Ye also discussed the potential collaboration with Professor Brenda Hannigan in terms of judge training and joint research projects. Both sides agreed that they should broaden the path for the cultivation of maritime judicial professionals. Southampton Law School will provide support for Guangzhou Maritime Court on the cultivation of maritime judges with international perspectives. Next they will strengthen their interaction and cooperation.

 

 

On the afternoon of Dec. 4, 2017, accompanied by President Ye Liudong, Vice President Huang Weiqing of Guangzhou Maritime Court, Deputy Director Yu Mingyong of the Standing Committee of Guangzhou Municipal People' s Congress, Director Zheng Liecheng of the Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs, led some of the members and deputies of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress to visit the Shenzhen Detached Tribunal.

After looking around the working environment, the members and deputies highly appreciated the achievements of digital court and informatization construction of the Shenzhen Detached Tribunal. Then they held talks with the staff of the tribunal. Director Cheng Shengxiang reported the basic information of Shenzhen Detached Tribunal and introduced the formation of the judge team, main characteristic of accepted cases, classic cases tried by the tribunal and research achievements. He put emphasis on the case involving the arrest of vessels of Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd. and the case of disputes over the right to use sea areas which was handled after multi-party coordination. President Ye Liudong gave a warm welcome to the team and briefly introduced the main work and achievement of Guangzhou Maritime Court in this year and the plan for next year.

After hearing President Ye’s report, Deputy Director Yu Mingyong indicated his full recognition on the achievements and the great judge team of Shenzhen Detached Tribunal. Then he brought forward his opinions and advice on the work of the tribunal.

On the afternoon of Nov. 30th, 2017, President Ye Liudong led his research team of 7, including Dong Qing, the Secretary of Committee for Discipline Inspection and staffs of Maritime Administrative Division, paid a visit to the Oceanic and Fishery Department of Guangdong Province for research and study. His counterpart, Wang Zhongbing, gave a warm welcome and held talks with the team. President Ye briefly introduced the development history, jurisdiction, staff composition and achievements of Guangzhou Maritime Court. The team is trying to learn about the new needs of oceanic administrative organs in law-based administration and maritime litigation so as to solve the new problems arose during the trial of maritime administrative cases. Wang Zhongbing pointed out that the current function transformation of the Oceanic and Fishery Department of Guangdong Province is focusing on five aspects, including marine equipment, marine organism, offshore wind power, combustible ice and marine public services. They are standing in need of stronger communication with Guangzhou Maritime Court. Further more, they put a high value on the research activities of Guangzhou Maritime Court and made adequate preparation for the research. During the talks, responsible officers of related divisions in the Oceanic and Fishery Department not only answered all the questions  fro m Guangzhou Maritime Court, but also fully exchanged views and reached a preliminary consensus with Guangzhou Maritime Court on marine pollution, illegal fishing, illegal cultivation, sea areas management, fishing ports management and application for execution.  

  On Saturday night of Nov. 4th, 2017, judges Song Weili, Song Ruiqiu, Chang Weiping and judge assistant Geng Lijun of Guangzhou Maritime Court were invited to Dongguan Broadcasting Station as special guests to attend the live talk show “Along with the Law”, which is a mainstay legal program of the station. The theme of the program on that day was “Maritime Trial in the Doorway in Dongguan”. Judge Song Weili and her team exchange din-depth views with the hosts Jiang Xiao and An Qi on the theme. They referred to the first case tried in Dongguan Circuit Court to introduce the necessity of setting up Dongguan Circuit Court and the proceedings there, and introduce the basic information of case trial and typical cases of Guangzhou Maritime Court.   During the live broadcast, the listeners were very responsive. They not only constantly sent greetings to the judges and interacted with them on Microblog, but also consulted about the maritime legal problems happening around them. The broadcast received very good responses in the society and achieved the anticipated goal, which is the publicity of Guangzhou Maritime Court providing high quality maritime justice safeguard for the construction of powerful marine province and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.      

  On October 30th, 2017, professors and students of Guangzhou Maritime College, a total of 45, attended a court trial heard by the maritime administrative division of Guangzhou Maritime Court. In this case, the plaintiff, as the carrier claims that the defendant, as the consignor caused the goods to be impounded by the local customs to whom they declared the fireworks and crackers as toothpicks and that the defendant is liable for the container demurrage at the destination port. The defendant counterclaims that they already paid the deposit to the plaintiff after the container was impounded, but the plaintiff never told them the condition of the goods at the destination port and that the plaintiff should pay back the deposit. During the trial, the collegial panel sorted the evidences provided by both parties, summarized the uncontroversial facts and points at issue, then guided both parties to further provide evidence and state their cross-examination opinions on the points, which includes “the basis of the plaintiff’s claim for the loss of container demurrage costs” and “whether the amount paid by the defendant is inside the range of deposit”, so as to present the case facts objectively. During the trial, both parties’ views collided and confronted with each other, which greatly attracted the attention of the professors and students of Guangzhou Maritime College and helped the whole trial to obtain favorable effects. After the trial, judges who presided over the trial communicated with the professors and students of Guangzhou Maritime College. The judges not only explained the general process of the court handling cases in detail, but also answer questions raised by students about the laws applied in maritime trial in the aspects of freight forwarding business and carriage of container cargo. The students said that they have better understanding of shipping practice and relative legal affairs after hearing the court trial. Besides, the trial has stimulated their learning enthusiasm for navigation laws.