The "Selection and Award of Excellent Programs on Government Websites", organized by the E-Government Council for 11 consecutive years from 2010 to 2022, has been widely acclaimed by the public and received increasing attention from the media. In 2022, the innovation in government services was promoted by a wide range of positive outcomes including launch of government service websites as well as mobile "micro-government", "micro-court", and "micro-service" across regions and sectors. A program called "The Voice of Judge" on the English website of Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC) was recognized as an excellent program on a government website in 2022, and thus GZMC was invited to attend the conference on the creation of excellent programs and sharing of management practices. It is among the 24 selected programs on court websites nationwide. It will be presented via a special section in China's E-Government Yearbook (2022). "The Voice of Judge" was launched on April 20, 2015. As a brand-new type of video program rolled out on GZMC website in English for the international community, it is dedicated to introducing China's maritime trial laws and judicial practices through young judges. Since its creation, the program has been upgraded twice, from the dull content of a judge sitting before a table and talking out legal provisions to a more vivid, technology-aided quality presentation of maritime legal stories, in keeping pace with the times. One episode of "The Voice of Judge" is presented quarterly, lasting about 10 minutes. Since its first episode debuted on April 20, 2015, 28 episodes have been released, helping the world better understand China, making known China's maritime trials, serving China's Belt and Road Initiative and maritime power strategy, and improving the international image of China's judiciary. Designed and resented in a way easily understandable to foreign viewers, "The Voice of Judge" serves as a promoter of Chinese rule of law and foreign-related matters and has far-reaching significance in the publicity and education of foreign-related rule of law. It is becoming a model program for China's maritime courts in carrying out the publicity and education of foreign-related maritime trials and building a characteristic culture. In this program, maritime judges leave the bench and share maritime legal knowledge through typical cases with people across the globe.

On October 11, 2022, the Supreme People's Court released the top ten typical cases with people's assessors participation in trial, among which a case of Guangzhou Maritime Court was included, i.e., People's Assessors Participating in a Seven-Member Collegiate Bench Trial of Civil Public-Interest Litigation on Marine Environment.   Selected case: People's Assessors Participating in a Seven-Member Collegiate Bench Trial of Civil Public-Interest Litigation on Marine Environment   I. Basic Facts of the Case On August 23, 2016, Li XX, the captain of a cargo ship, approached Cui XX, an intermediary engaged in waste acquisition, and the parties agreed to drive the ship to a terminal to load and then carry waste to the sea for dumping, with each ton settled at RMB 65. Li XX hired Gan XX to work on the ship. On the same day, the ship arrived at the terminal designated by Wen XX, the waste source provider, and loaded 659.3 tons of waste, for which Cui XX paid RMB 35,000 to Li XX. On the following day, while driving the ship, Li XX instructed Gan XX to operate an excavator to dump most of the waste on the ship into the sea, which totaled 563.99 tons. On August 25, the ship and persons on the ship were seized by the customs anti-smuggling division. Upon assessment, the dumping incident caused such consequences as damage to marine environmental capacity, pollution of seawater quality, and death of marine life. Subsequently, the Ecology and Environment Bureau of Zhuhai filed a public-interest lawsuit with Guangzhou Maritime Court, requesting that Wen XX, Cui XX, Li XX, Gan XX and the owner of the ship involved in the case be ordered to jointly and severally compensate for the costs of remediation, removal and disposal of waste, and other losses, totaling RMB 2,049,000, and to make an apology. The People's Procuratorate of Zhuhai supported the plaintiff in filing the lawsuit. Guangzhou Maritime Court randomly selected four people's assessors from the list of people's assessors with marine-related expertise and formed a seven-member collegial bench with three judges, with its President acting as the presiding judge. In the first instance, it was ruled that the defendants Wen XX, Cui XX and Li XX compensate costs of environmental remediation and other losses aggregating RMB 2,049,000, and Gan XX be jointly and severally liable to the extent of 85.54% of the compensation amount, and they jointly make an apology to the public. The defendants Wen XX and Gan XX were not satisfied with the judgment and filed an appeal. Guangdong High People's Court rejected the appeal in the second instance and upheld the original judgment.   II. Role of People’s Assessors Participation in Trial   This case was civil public-interest litigation on the marine environment caused by the tortfeasors dumping waste into the sea. The four people's assessors, from marine-related industries and enthusiastic about the public-interest marine environment affairs, played an active role in the case trials. First, they carefully ascertained the facts. The people's assessors conducted investigations centered on the facts in dispute and expressed their opinions on each specific factual finding based on the list of fact issues, such as whether the garbage dumping incident caused damage to the marine environment, whether the five defendants jointly implemented the act of polluting the environment, and the scope of environmental damage inflicted, resulting in the transcript of the collegial bench running to 36 pages. Second, they further proposed scientific and reasonable opinions on ecological remediation. When deliberating the case, the people's assessors made analyses by applying their expertise and proposed that the waste dumped into the sea had been extremely dispersed by the movement of ocean currents, making it objectively difficult to eliminate the impact by salvaging, collecting, removing, etc.; therefore, if the defendants were ordered to restore the marine environment when they expressed their inability to do so, it was rather difficult to get the damaged marine environment restored in time, and was not conducive to protecting the public interest. This opinion was accepted by the collegial bench, which decided to support the plaintiff's request for an alternative environmental remediation approach, in which the final compensation amount was determined by establishing an equivalence between environmental damage and the discounted amount of services for restoring the ecological environment. Hence, the defendants were ordered to compensate for the cost of ecological remediation.   III. Key Significance   Caring about the ocean, understanding the ocean, planning ocean governance, and establishing the concept of an ocean community with a common future is the path China must take to become a maritime power. In this case, the judges conscientiously performed their duties to provide guidance and suggestions as to the case trial, and meticulously worked out a list of fact issues to ensure that the four people's assessors gave full play to their professional role in the fact-finding of marine environmental damage. This highlighted the principle of public participation in environmental justice. The four people's assessors fulfilled their duties earnestly, which increased the acceptability of the decision. In addition, the live broadcast of the whole hearing process on the Internet demonstrated the function of the people's justice in dispute resolution. The trial of the case strongly protected the marine ecological environment in the waters of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, further showed the benefits of regulation, education and guidance of marine environmental justice, implemented the principle of public participation in environmental justice, and raised the public awareness of the protection of and the rule of law in the marine environment.

The Agreement (Cooperation Agreement of Law Enforcement and Justice Coordination and Co-building between Guangzhou Maritime Court Zhuhai Tribunal and Hongkong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge MSA)is signed on Sept. 16  2022 at the Bridge MSA (Hongkong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge MSA). Representatives of both sides held a signing ceremony. The aim is to provide high quality legal service of waterway traffic safety, enhance legal awareness of practitioners, and protect legitimate rights of relevant parties. Cooperation and coordination of legal publicity, law enforcement, Party-people relation are on schedule. Advantages and resources of maritime court and maritime administration in their respective fields will be combined, that disputes will begin to be handled at an earlier stage, that a harmonious and stable environment for shipping transport will be nurtured, and that the shipping transport industry will propser. The building of the Greater Bay Area is guaranteed. Based on the Agreement, the two, with "Efficiency, Quality, Equality, Service" as the goal and with "Negotiation, Co-building, Co-governance, Share" as the principle, will boost communication, combine advantages and resources, coordinate legal publicity, share data, deepen judicial and maritime administrative law enforcement strategic cooperation, build an exemplary brand of judicial and maritime administrative law enforcement cooperation and combination.

Studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and Improving the Quality of Foreign-Related Maritime Trial—the signed article written by Chao Chen, the president and party secretary of Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC), was published by People’s Court Daily on its Weekly Theory section. The App “xuexiqiangguo” operated by Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee shared the whole article. President Chao Chen pointed out in the article that Xi’s concepts of coordinately advancing the  rule of law of domestic and foreign cases, promoting coordinated implementation of domestic governance and global governance, facilitating the construction of community with a shared future for mankind were influential on advancing the foreign-related maritime trials. Based on the court’s responsibility and functionality, the country’s goal of building China’s marine power, and the initiative of building “the Belt and Road”, GZMC will support Shenzhen in building a Pioneering Demonstration Zone for Socialism with Chinese characteristics. By enhancing the judicial influence of foreign-related cases, and thoroughly studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law in foreign-related maritime trials in Guangdong, GZMC provides maritime judicial service guarantee for higher level of opening-up.

Recently, when Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC) was delivering the notification of case conclusion and enforcement to the judgement debtor—a ship manufacturing company in Zhuhai, the “certification of fulfilling obligation with initiative” was also delivered. This is the first case that was eligible for the validation of obligation fulfilling with initiative based on effective judgements. The contract dispute was between the plaintiff Mr. Cai and the defendant—a ship manufacturing company in Zhuhai. Handled by judge Le Zhang of Zhuhai Tribunal, both sides reached settlement agreement, according to which the defendant should pay the plaintiff 325，000 CNY as settlement payment. However, when the settlement had been reached, the defendant indicated that due to the pandemic, the company was going through financial difficulties. Besides the balance in the account frozen by GZMC for property preservation, the company didn’t have extra money to pay the plaintiff. In order to help the plaintiff get the settlement amount as soon as possible, both parties agreed to transfer the case for enforcement. The Collegial Panel of the Bureau of Enforcement considered this case being different from the other cases where the judgement debtor avoid the debts. In this case, the debtor took the initiative to pay the settlement, but failed to complete the payment due to the reason of judicial freezing of the company account, which caused the inability to independently perform the agreement. Besides, because of the pandemic, the company didn’t have extra money to pay for the settlement. The defendant took the initiative to request payment to the plaintiff through enforcement procedure, which made the defendant eligible for waiving the enforcement fee. According to “Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Further Intensifying the Ideal of Enforcement with Goodwill and Politeness in the Enforcement Work” and “Notice by the Supreme People's Court of Issuing the Guiding Opinions for Fully Maximizing the Role of Judicial Functions to Boost the Development of Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises” published by the Supreme People’s Court, while ensuring the legal benefits of the party winning the suit, courts have the right to help the debtor to fix credits by delivering required files of certification and proof. In this way, the negative effect can be eliminated for the debtor who took proactive steps to fulfill the obligations. In this case, the defendant carried out the settlement agreement actively, so the Collegial Panel decided to issue the judgement debtor “certification of fulfilling obligation with initiative”. The way this case was handled showed the execution of the judicial philosophy of working proactively for the people by the officers of GZMC Zhuhai Tribunal and the Bureau of Enforcement. The court responded people’s legal requests and solved the problems actively, using creative methods when it’s necessary. The court has implemented the “We Make Practical Efforts for the People” slogan by carrying out enforcement with goodwill and politeness, facilitating the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

  For the purpose of improving the officers’ knowledge of ship, on June 22nd, 2022, more than 50 officers of GZMC headed to CSSC HUANGPU WENCHONG SHIPBUILDING COMPANY LIMITED, Longxuechang Branch (located in Nansha District), and attended an on-site teaching and learning session. Officers had visited the ship “Yu Lin Hai”, which was built in March, 2012, by CSSC HUANGPU WENCHONG SHIPBUILDING COMPANY LIMITED. The ship was all steel welded, stern-engined and power-driven, and longitudinally framed. The ship was a bulk carrier which featured single engine, single screw, single rudder and single deck. The length of the ship was 217 meters, and the width was 32 meters. With a full displacement of 88000 tons, the ship had a full complement of 27 persons. At the dock, before guiding participants to visit the ship, the captain announced the attention points about getting on board and introduced the ship’s structure and water gauge in detail. Inside the wheel house, the captain focused on introducing how ship berthed and unberthed, navigation operation, and anchoring jobs. In the control room and engine room, the captain introduced the structure of cargo hold and operation in engine room. Participants had active discussions with the captain and chief engineer. According to the feedback from the participants, the on-site teaching and learning session was impressive and helpful since it provided access to the actual object and gave chance to have discussion with experienced personnels along with theoretical lectures. Comparing to the lecture-only teaching method, participants could better understand the contents and it felt more practical. As a result, the feedback showed that those who participated would like to have more on-site teaching and learning sessions in the future.

  On June 17th, 2022, The news conference “Maritime Trials of 2022 · Serving and Assuring the Construction of the Greater Bay area” was held in GZMC. The court published the white paper of maritime trials in 2021, typical cases of serving and assuring the building of the Greater Bay Area, ten enforcement cases in 2021 in Chinese, English and Portuguese. The goal of publishing white paper and introducing past cases in three language was to analyze the features of maritime and admiralty disputes, so that in the Greater Bay Area, the existing or potential problems of the shipping economy can be diagnosed and solved, while the ocean economy can develop in a sustainable way. This is the sixth time that GZMC published trilingual white paper in Chinese, English and Portuguese, while it’s the twelfth time that the court publish bilingual white paper in Chinese and English. According to the vice president of GZMC, Sibin Liu, in 2021, GZMC accepted 4092 cases of various types (43.08% increase year-on-year), subject matter of action at a value of more than 8 billion CNY, and the amount of accepted cases was only slightly below the year 2019, which  was 4795. The amount of cases has almost recovered to the level before the pandemic. In recent years, due to the impact of environmental remediation for marine ecology, the amount of accepted administrative lawsuits had reached record high in 2021, and the cases had apparent characteristics of collectivity. In 2021, the amount of accepted administrative lawsuits of first instance was 271, and concluded case amount was 336. Both the accepted and concluded administrative cases had outnumbered past years. The proportion of foreign-related cases increased. The amount of accepted civil cases of first instance that related to foreign parties, or related to Hongkong, Macau or Taiwan was 747, which was 38.56% among all accepted civil cases of first instance. The foreign-related civil cases of first instance and concluded cases exceeded the total amount of accepted cases and concluded civil cases of first instance by one-third in quantity. In terms of enforcement, the conclusion and enforcement rate of property cases in statutory period was 98.18%, and the conformity rate was 100%; online judicial auction coverage rate reached 100%, and a total amount of 480 million of CNY had been fully paid in enforcement cases.

On the occasion the 12th "Day of the Seafarer" (June 25), Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC) distributed over 3 million RMB of unpaid wages for the attorney of 15 foreign crews from Greece and Philippines of the Vessel of Angelic Power on June 23. It is to salute seafarers through the implementation of judgment. A Greek ship Angelic Power was detained by GZMC due to debt disputes on April 16, 2021. The shipowner was required to provide guarantees before the ship left Guangzhou Port. However, the shipowner abandoned the ship with exhausted materials, food and fresh water, that undermined the health of 15 crew members on that ship. According to the Court, it has consulted all creditors involved in this case by law to distribute the salaries from the auction of the vessel. That is to protect their interests as much as possible in terms of difficulties brought by the pandemic and the fluctuation of shipping market. The on-site implementation of maritime judgment indicates that China's maritime courts is making efforts to create a preferred choice for maritime dispute resolution, and shows the ability and determination to maintain an orderly shipping market, to equally protect the legitimate rights of foreign seafarers and the underprivileged, said Wang Yufei, Vice President of GZMC. After being asked for help from the crews, GZMC had worked with relevant departments and adopted a series of measures to resolve their survival dilemma. GZMC provided help for those crews including sending professional repairers for the ship's maintenance, to offer oil, daily supplies and common medicines for their living, and offer litigation guidance for foreign crews, said Deng Jinbiao, Deputy Chief Judge of the Maritime Administrative Division of GZMC. "From February 2021, the vessel was abandoned by the shipowner while leaving crews unpaid, we stayed there without food, without support, without supplies. But thanks to the efforts of GZMC, they gave us the opportunity to survive, to be saved," said Syrianos via a video link, who is former captain of Angelic Power. In July 2021, the crews finally left the ship and boarded plane to return home. Later in October 2021, the ship was auctioned off 64 million RMB, with priority is given to pay the crews' salaries. In GZMC's concluded cases involving disputes over foreign seafarers' labor contracts since 2020, they all received compensation for their wage claims.   Author: Will  Video: Qin Shaolong Editor: Wing, Nan, Jerry  Editor: Will  Source: newsgd.com

In the afternoon of June 6th, 2022, a special handover of bill of lading(hereinafter referred to simply as B/L) took place in the second court of Shenzhen Maritime Tribunal. The respondent of a maritime injunction application returned the B/L to the claimant. The maritime injunction case caused by freight forwarder exerting pressure on the consignee overseas by detaining the B/L was settled by pre-litigation mediation. Three days ago, when the two parties first attended the court hearing,  the contradiction between the two parties were sharp and both sides were engaged in heated argument. The respondent insisted that this case should be handled along with all other cargo transportation disputes of the consignee and rejected mediation on the grounds of trade practice. When the judge assistant Zhang Weiquan asked the respondent to show the B/L involved to the court to prove that the respondent was in possession, the respondent denied the request and persisted that the consignee should pay before viewing the B/L. The case thus reached a deadlock. Considering the cargo ship would soon arrive at the port in Bangladesh, which would incur large amount of demurrage and storage charge and potentially intensify the conflict if the respondent kept on detaining the B/L, Judge Luo Chun made a great effort to negotiate with the claimant and the respondent back and forth. After analyzing the facts and potential outcomes, the judge gave the respondent instructions to protect his legitimate rights and interests with legal methods, and helped the claimant to contact the consignee to pay for part of the fees. In the end, Both sides met in the middle. The respondent submitted a commitment letter and agreed to release the B/L, and completed the handover under the witness of judges and other attendants in the trial.

In the afternoon of June 6th, 2022, a special handover of bill of lading(hereinafter referred to simply as B/L) took place in the second court of Shenzhen Maritime Tribunal. The respondent of a maritime injunction application returned the B/L to the claimant. The maritime injunction case caused by freight forwarder exerting pressure on the consignee overseas by detaining the B/L was settled by pre-litigation mediation. Three days ago, when the two parties first attended the court hearing,  the contradiction between the two parties were sharp and both sides were engaged in heated argument. The respondent insisted that this case should be handled along with all other cargo transportation disputes of the consignee and rejected mediation on the grounds of trade practice. When the judge assistant Zhang Weiquan asked the respondent to show the B/L involved to the court to prove that the respondent was in possession, the respondent denied the request and persisted that the consignee should pay before viewing the B/L. The case thus reached a deadlock. Considering the cargo ship would soon arrive at the port in Bangladesh, which would incur large amount of demurrage and storage charge and potentially intensify the conflict if the respondent kept on detaining the B/L, Judge Luo Chun made a great effort to negotiate with the claimant and the respondent back and forth. After analyzing the facts and potential outcomes, the judge gave the respondent instructions to protect his legitimate rights and interests with legal methods, and helped the claimant to contact the consignee to pay for part of the fees. In the end, Both sides met in the middle. The respondent submitted a commitment letter and agreed to release the B/L, and completed the handover under the witness of judges and other attendants in the trial.