Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme People's Court, demanded that more efforts should be made to give full play to the role of maritime courts. He made the remarks when attending a symposium Saturday morning in Nanjing Maritime Court.Lou Qinjian, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress, attended the symposium.
China has approved the establishment of the country’s 11th maritime court in the city of Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu Province.
Maritime courts are special courts set up to try first-hearing maritime or sea-shipping cases for the purpose of exercising judicial jurisdiction over maritime affairs. The other ten maritime courts are in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin, Dalian, Wuhan, Haikou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Beijing.
Zhou Qiang and Lou Qinjian attended the unveiling ceremony of the Nanjing Maritime Court.
Zhou Qiang pointed out that the establishment of the Nanjing Maritime Court is an important measure to thoroughly study and implement the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Party, and to promote the modernization of the judicial system and judicial capacity.
The maritime court matters a great deal to national maritime rights and interests and the country’s high level of opening up, Zhou said, adding that the Nanjing Maritime Court must seize development opportunities, fulfill its duties and fulfill its responsibilities, and make new contributions to promoting the high-quality development of Jiangsu's economy and society and building a new Jiangsu.
We must adhere to strict and impartial justice, give full play to the role of maritime courts, and create a good environment for the rule of law in order to promote the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta as well as the implementation of the strategy of building China into a maritime power and the high-quality construction of the “Belt and Road”, said the President of the Supreme People's Court.
Zhou Qiang asked relevant departments to guide the court practices and promote the work of the court from the political height of strengthening the four consciousnesses and the four self-confidences, safeguarding the authority of the CPC Central Committee and getting united around the centralized and unified leadership the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core so that the work of the court is in alignment with the right political direction.
The maritime court must strengthen the awareness of national sovereignty, exercise maritime jurisdiction in accordance with the law, maintain the security of the "blue homeland", adhere to the principles of openness, fairness, and high efficiency, effectively improve the professional level of maritime trials, and continuously improve the right and influence of China's maritime trials to speak in the international community, said the chief justice.
It is necessary to strengthen maritime international judicial exchanges and cooperation, fully demonstrate China's maritime trial development achievements, strengthen personnel training, adhere to strict governance of the party, and build a high-quality maritime trial team with strong politics, excellent expertise, and international perspective, he added.
On behalf of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, Lou Qinjian thanked the Supreme People's Court for its care and support for Jiangsu's work.
He said that the establishment of the Nanjing Maritime Court is an effective measure to implement the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Party, and a major event in the construction of the rule of law in Jiangsu.
The CPC Provincial chief hoped that the Nanjing Maritime Court will conscientiously implement the requirements of the central decision-making and the deployment of the Supreme People's Court, actively serve the implementation of national strategies, strengthen the international perspective, strive to build a national first-class and even an internationally influential maritime court, and contribute to the overall development of the province and the country.
Like in the previous ten courts, the scope of cases tried by the maritime court in Nanjing includes maritime infringement disputes, maritime contract disputes, maritime and navigable waters development and utilization and environmental protection related dispute cases, and other maritime disputes.
Since the first maritime court was established in 1992, the ten courts so far have set up 39 tribunals in major port cities within their jurisdictions to conduct on-site hearings. According to Chan Yang, presiding judge of the Shanghai Maritime Court, “this has formed specialized maritime adjudication infrastructure covering every port and the entire territorial waters of China, from Heilongjiang River in the north to the islands of Xisha, Zhongsha, Nansha and Huangyan Isle in the south.”
(Source:ourjiangsu.com)
