The 24th national seminar on maritime trials was held on March 24 in Haikou, south China’s Hainan province.

He Rong, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, China’s top court, said the seminar was of great help to China’s maritime courts as they adjust to new situations and work hard to serve and support the country’s economic and social development.

Progress made in maritime cases over the past more than three decades has helped China consolidate its position through soft power development as the Asia Pacific region’s maritime judicial center, He said.

Maritime cases must follow the trends of China’s integration into the world economy, he said. He called for fair and efficient handling of various maritime disputes as he underlined equal protection of Chinese and foreign litigants’ legal rights and interests to improve the credibility of China’s maritime judiciary. In addition, he urged courts to attach great importance to informatization and further increase transparency of maritime trials so as to boost Chinese and foreign litigants’ trust.

Through study of typical cases Chinese maritime courts should learn international rules as soon as possible, and take a leading role in guiding their development, thus boosting China’s maritime judiciary influence in the international community, he said. He also called for education and training to cultivate competent maritime judges with international vision and experience.

Leaders from ten maritime courts and high courts that handle appeals, officials from courts and maritime-related institutions in Hainan, and the authors of 20 prize-winning theses were present at the meeting. Attendees had in-depth discussions on a variety of topics, including judicial support for the construction of the Maritime Silk Road, jurisdiction over and trial procedures of public-interest-related ocean environmental, jurisdictional issues in cases involving foreign parties’ maritime rights, and legal issues in vessel operations involving affiliated agencies.

He also had discussions with Zhang Qi, a standing committee member of the Hainan provincial Party committee and the Party secretary of Sanya city, and Li Xiu, also a standing committee member of the Hainan Party committee and head of its organization department.

He paid visits to the Hainan High People’s Court and the Hainan branch of the National Judges College and heard their work reports.