On October 31, 2019, the Northern District Research Conference on the Revision of “The Special Maritime Procedure Law”, organized by the Supreme People's Court and Dalian Maritime Court, was held in Dalian. Wang Shumei, Chief Judge of the Fourth Civil Adjudication Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, attended the conference and delivered a speech. Hou Wei, judge of the Fourth Civil Adjudication Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, Deng Yan, party secretary and president of Dalian Maritime Court, the members of “The Special Maritime Procedure Law” revision work group, and more than 30 people, namely the judges of Liaoning High People's Court, Tianjin High People's Court, Tianjin Maritime Court and Qingdao Maritime Court and the representatives of Dalian Maritime University, law firms and port and shipping insurance companies, attended the forum. The research conference was presided by Hou Shujie, vice president of Dalian Maritime Court.
Wang Shumei, Chief Judge of the Fourth Civil Adjudication Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, introduced the legislative process and purpose of “The Special Maritime Procedure Law” and emphasized that “The Special Maritime Procedure Law” was the only procedural law independently drafted by the Supreme People's Court. “The Special Maritime Procedure Law” had supplemented and improved “The Civil Procedure Law” and played an active role in the development of shipping trade and maritime trials. On the basis of adhering to the advanced legislative concept of “The Special Maritime Procedure Law”, the Supreme People's Court would fully summarize the maritime judicial practice, integrate the forces from all walks of life, revise and improve “The Special Maritime Procedures Law” to further accelerate the construction of the marine power strategy, provide judicial guarantees to build a marine community of shared future and a legislative blueprint for the international community.
Deng Yan pointed out that the in-depth development of the open economy and the marine economy and the further advancement of the “Belt and Road” Construction had given the maritime court an arduous mission and major responsibility. To achieve the goal of "trying to make the public experience fairness and justice in each judicial case”, we needed to start from every case and start by solving new problems in every maritime trial. The research conference organized by the Supreme People's Court had effectively linked with the difficult problems that the current maritime trials faced, broadened the path of feedback from the institutions in maritime sector, expanded the exchange of space between the courts in judicial theory and practice and expanded the study scope of experts and scholars concerning the maritime trial issues, which was needed enormous work at present but more beneficial to the development of maritime trials in the long run.
Participants conducted in-depth research and discussion on the problems arising in the implementation of “The Special Maritime Procedures Law”.
By Yang Guang