“Hello Mr. Chen, this is Jiangmen Aquatic Traffic Safety Legal Service Center. Your scheduled inquiries will now be answered and handled by Judge Zhang Le from Zhuhai Tribunal of Guangzhou Maritime Court…” In the afternoon of March 29, 2022, the legal service team built by Guangzhou Maritime Court and Jiangmen Maritime Safety Administration had provided legal advisory and answered questions through hotline for water transport practitioners such as crew members and directors of shipping agencies. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the legal service took place through online platform this time. The contents covered in the advisory included salary of crew members, maritime accident investigation, litigation and conviction criteria. In the online advisory session, the legal service team had introduced knowledge about maritime profession and law in detail, facilitated problem solving for the public and answered FAQs. Providing reliable and direct service for the public had been made possible by the online service provided by the legal service team, and the team had also delivered a message that nomocracy could be warm. The next step for Jiangmen Aquatic Traffic Safety Legal Service Center is to explore and build new working modes. The new sessions include “door-to-door service” and “customized service”. We are aiming to fulfill the coming demands more precisely and efficiently, resolve maritime disputes from the origin, and provide more efficient, high-quality and convenient legal service for the wide majority of water transport practitioners .

  On the afternoon of May 23rd, 2022, Deputy Director of MSA of the Bridge, Sanlan He, with his head and vice-head of General Service, Yulong Huang and Shan Jiang, as well as Zhouling Xu and Kaizhong Huang, visited Zhuhai Maritime Tribunal. Chunlong Xu, Le Zhang, and Zihao Zhang, judges of Zhuhai Maritime Tribunal, had an exchange with them. In the exchange, Sanlan He introduced the foundation of MAS of the Bridge, how it developed, its staff composition, and their exercise of maritime administrative power in accordance with the law. Judge Chunlong Xu introduced Zhuhai Maritime Tribunal’s development, jurisdiction, number and types of maritime cases handled in recent years. They had in-depth discussions of issues of their common concern. Topics included building of the Party, team building, maritime accident investigation, protection of crew members’ legal rights, applying for the Youth Model Unit Award, and trial attending of the MSA staff. They further discussed their future in-depth interaction and cooperation.

  During the process of handling a case related to marine exploitation, Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC) checked and verified that the administration bureau of National Huidong Nature Sea Turtle Reserve had built marine engineering constructions in its sea turtle conservation area without completing Environmental Impact Assessment or acquiring the right of using sea areas, which had crossed the ecological conservation redline. The sea turtle species affected in this case have been listed as endangered animal. Their habitats and spawning areas are under  threat of being disturbed, damaged, even lost due to human activities. Including National Huidong Nature Sea Turtle Reserve, most sea turtle spawning areas have been having no spawning for years. Being the administration bureau of a state-level sea turtle conservation area, the bureau built marine engineering construction in ecologically sensitive areas with neither proper protection nor evaluation about potential effect on marine resources or ecosystem, such as influence on sea turtle migration, is undoubtedly a shocking news. GZMC entered judgement that denied the validity of the investment and building agreement signed by related parties. By proactively examination, the court concluded that the agreement which sabotaged the public interest and the society was invalid, and dismissed the claims made by the administration bureau of National Huidong Nature Sea Turtle Reserve according to law. After the second instance trial, the judgement made by GZMC has been supported by the High People’s Court of Guangdong Province and taken legal effects. In order to ensure ecologically sensitive areas such as Sea Turtle Bay under proper protection, GZMC submitted judicial opinions to Guangdong Provincial Department of Natural Resources. We suggested to strengthen law-enforcing supervision to ensure ecological conservation redline not be crossed firstly; secondly, to give warning or punishment to related parties in accordance with law in time. Guangdong Provincial Department of Natural Resources informed GZMC that their related department leader had read our submission and took it very seriously. The related department of Guangdong Provincial Department of Natural Resources immediately cooperated with Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province, and executed what we mentioned in the judicial opinions by comparing how things stand at present with how things should be according to the law. All related departments expressed their appreciation of GZMC’s suggestions, and they are going to use this case as an opportunity, to further enhance regulation and management for marine-related nature reserve. By improving the quality of case-handling, strengthening the administration of trials, introducing legal policies to the public using real cases, GZMC has effectively sustained the order in terms of natural resource exploitation and protected marine ecological system. What GZMC has accomplished will have significant and positive impact on implementing protection of natural resources from the headstream and the accountability system, which guarantees reliable judicial services and safeguard for enhancing protection of marine ecological system and sustainability.  

  When the eighth national Constitution Day comes, on December 3rd, 2021, GZMC inaugurated the ceremony of Pledging Allegiance to the Constitution of the PRC, and Oath of Office for newly-appointed judges. The theme of the ceremony was “Elevate Nomocracy Spirit, and Strengthen Political Faith”.   The ceremony started with bailiffs carrying the Five-starred Red Flag into the venue, and all attendants stood up and sang the National Anthem of the PRC. During the ceremony, the newly-appointed judge Liming Zhao swore an Oath of Office with his hands touching the constitution. After that, guided by Chao Chen, Secretary of the Leading Party Group and the president of GZMC, all political-legal workers of GZMC pledged allegiance to the constitution of the PRC.   When the pledging was completed, the song “Asking Your Raised Hands” composed by Hong’an Wu, was performed by the composer. The impassioned singing had delivered the political-legal workers’ loyalty and faith to the constitution of the PRC, the country, and the people.  The oath ceremony inaugurated this time was an important action to thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, move forward on the study and education of the Party’s history, and execute the advanced education and rectification for the political-legal team. It encouraged all political-legal workers to perform duties in accordance with the law, be faithful to the constitution, strengthen their faith and move forward. The ceremony was also meant to promote the spirit of nomocracy, strengthen political faith, improve the capability of performing political duties, and promote incorruptibility, so that the political-legal team can be built into a loyal, clean, and invincible team.

  On November 17th, 2021, the 33th Sub-provincial City’s Forum of Rule of Law was convened in Guangzhou. The theme of the forum was “New Concept · New Perspective: Law-based Business Environment and High-quality Development”. Scholars, practitioners and social workers in jurisprudence and legal system from 15 sub-provincial cities participated in the forum through the integration of online and in-person attendance. Sujun Zhang, member of the Leading Party Group and vice president of China Law Society, attended the forum virtually and gave a speech. Xinghuan Lv, director of the Membership Department of China Law Society, announced the reward and commending decision. Bin Jiang, vice president of Guangdong Province Law Society, spoke in the forum meeting. Xiaodan Xie, Secretary of the Standing Committee and Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee, president of Guangzhou City Law Society, attended the forum meeting and gave a speech.   The vice president Yufei Wang gave a guest speech in the synchronous forum of which the theme was “Building of Foreign-related Legal System and Opening-up based on Rules and Related Institutions”. The title of his speech was “Legal Right Protection for International Crew under the Context of Normalization of Pandemic Prevention and Control—Practicing Experience of GZMC’s Case Handling on ‘Angelica Power’ based on Law”. Wang pointed out in the speech that GZMC had protected the legal rights and interests of International Crew efficiently by giving more attention to cases related to the pandemic’s impact on international crew’s legal rights and interests, strictly following the country’s foreign-related laws and signed international treaties, and being dedicated to facilitating interaction and integration of domestic laws and international laws, so as to provide service and guarantee for the construction of “the Belt and Road Initiative” and “Dual Zone”.   Wang used the case of the Greek ship “Angelica Power” as a starting point, introduced GZMC’s six judicial guarantee principles on handling cases related to international crew disputes. First, initiatively and precisely referring to international treaties when it’s needed. Second, further development of linkage mechanism and facilitating the implementation of the third party managed security service. Third, using “Virtual Jurisdiction” as a complement to serve the involved foreign parties more efficiently. Forth, expressing warmth of the jurisdiction by offering foreign litigants humanistic consideration. Fifth, enhancing and clarifying litigation guidance to help foreign litigants defend their legal rights according to law. Sixth, ensuring procedural justice and regulating foreign ship arrest and auction procedures.   Zhenrong Luo, a judge assistant from Research Office of GZMC, had attended all related activities of the forum.  

Recently, the High People’s Court of Guangdong Province posted the progress of the 2021 election for “The Most Beautiful People’s Tribunal” and “The Most Beautiful grassroots Judge”.Jing Wen,head of Zhanjiang Tribunal of GZMC, had won the election.   Since 2005, when Jing Wen joined GZMC, she had been working in maritime tribunals of GZMC and staying on the frontline of maritime trial. “We should let the people see that justice is served in every case tried by using our honest, fair and righteous attitude, Not only the party winning the lawsuit has to be satisfied, But also the one who loses ” had always been her motto. Jing Wen had won the satisfaction and compliment from the people, by promoting clean government and being dedicated to her job.    

For the purpose of going further on making efforts to serve the people, responding actively to people’s attention paid to enforcement cases, and further enhancing people’s sense of benefit for maritime enforcement, according to the requirement and arrangement of the Supreme People’s Court of P.R.C and Guangdong High People’s Court, Guangzhou Maritime Court (GZMC) had held an event of focused issuance of executed money. The event had issued 15 sums of money, and the total amount was over 24 million CNY. 3 applicants picked up their issued money at GZMC in-person, while 12 crews applied and drew their issued amount through online video chat due to the reason of still being on-board and pandemic prevention and control policy. Starting from this year, GZMC had achieved the completion of enforcement worth more than 300 million CNY, and the in-place enforcement proportion of first enforcement cases was 22.03%, ranked fifth among all courts in Guangdong province. The proportion of cases that the enforcees had money or property for enforcement concluded by statutory time limit for concluding trials was 98%, ranked second among all courts in the province. The qualified rate of the execution measures of  ending this executive procedureis 100%.The completion rate of execution items within the entrusted period is 100% .The execution of enforcement measurements was completed in good condition. Currently, GZMC has fully implemented management system for executed money, and uses exclusive serial number for each case. The automatic matching rate for executed money is therefore higher than the average of the province, which has provided a solid base for executed money to be issued on time, safely and efficiently.

  In order to enhance clerks’ sense of identity, sense of belonging and sense of honor for Guangzhou Maritime Court, and get further understanding about their working and living condition, Zongwen Zhao had arranged a training session on behalf of the Party Branch of Enforcement Department for four clerks in the morning of November 8th, 2021. The theme of the training was further communication and comprehensive capability improvement.   The contents for improving comprehensive capability were delivered by Zhao using his personal experiences. Zhao pointed out that young clerks should first, reinforce the learning of ideological theories, be firm in their political stance, and stay loyal to their political conviction. Second, they should follow the rules, be open to the teams and dedicated to their jobs, and provide various ancillary services with devoted attitude. Third, clerks should keep on learning both their professional knowledges and other comprehensive professions. They should adjust and improve themselves from time to time in their work. By learning from other colleagues and drawing lessons from the past, clerks should enhance their comprehensive quality from all aspects. Forth, clerks should have a practical attitude toward the gap between ideality and reality. They should be dedicated to their jobs and be down-to-earth when having their goals set high. Finally, Zhao ended the session by quoting chairman Jinping Xi’s quote: “The shine of youth comes out from grinding, and the sublimation of life comes from fighting.”  

  In the morning of November 10th, 2021, the Level IV Division Rank Official of the Regulation Division, Chaojie Fu, and the Marine Safety Investigating Officer of the Maritime Traffic Division of Shantou MSA, Shaozhong Guo, came to Shantou Maritime Tribunal and communicated about some universal law issues encountered in maritime work. The two institutions had an in-depth exchange of views about recognition of administrative counterpart of a maritime administrative action, evidence collection in maritime accident investigation, and delivery of maritime administrative punishment. Ruiqiu Song had provided professional insights and suggestions to each of the issue mentioned above.   In order to maintain maritime traffic safety and promote administration by law, both institutions had come to an agreement that it’s necessary to build and integrate platforms by using the Party Branch’s force to enhance working communication, and have discussions about related ship collision cases starting from the date when the cases were concluded and the judgement became effective.  

  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.