White Paper (2022): Cases and Statistics

I.  Overview

（I）Basic statistics

1.Statistics on cases accepted and concluded

Throughout the year of 2022, the Court in total handled 3165 cases, including 2870 cases newly accepted and 295 cases left over from previous years. Compared with the statistics of 2021 on a year-on-year basis, the numbers of newly-accepted cases increased by 29.45%. 2791 cases were concluded, up 28.56% over the previous year, showing the clearance rate of 88.18%, up 0.36% over the previous year.

In 2022, the Court in total handled 2449 contentious cases, 2237 of which were newly accepted (consisting of 1453 first-instance admiralty and maritime cases, 82 maritime administrative case, and 702 other cases). The subject matters of the newly-accepted contentious cases valued in aggregate at about RMB 3,685,109,900. And 2134 contentious cases were concluded in the year (consisting of 1512 first-instance admiralty and maritime cases, 71 maritime administrative cases and 551 other cases), amongst which 477 cases were concluded by judgment, 369 settled through mediation, 629 withdrawn and 659 concluded by other means, making the clearance rate of contentious cases reach 87.14%.

In the year, the Court in total handled 716 enforcement cases, 633 of which were newly accepted, and involved a total value of about RMB 2,164,873,300. The year also saw the Court concluding 657 enforcement cases, with effective enforcement value totaling about RMB 1,891,056,300. The clearance rate of enforcement cases reached 91.76%.

In the year, the Court in total arrested 35 vessels and auctioned or sold 64 vessels. 22 vessels were successfully auctioned or sold, with the hammer prices totaling up to RMB 141 million.

2.Quality and efficiency of trials

（1）The rate of judgments announced in court was 13.65%, 3.31% higher than that of 2021.

（2）The rate of clearance within statutory period for trial of contentious cases reached 100%.

（3）The rate of clearance within statutory period of cases where property is available for enforcement in 2022 was 99.58%.

（4）The rates of mediation and withdrawal were 48.33% and 30.27% respectively.

（5）The rate of satisfaction with first-instance judgments was 89.60%, showing a year-on-year increase of 6.86%.

（6）177 cases of appeal against judgments/rulings issued by the Court were concluded in the second instance where 9 judgments were amended, 3 judgments were revoked, 5 rulings were revoked, and 12 cases were remanded for retrial. The rate of amendment of first-instance judgments/rulings and remand for retrial was 5.29%, showing a slight increase compared with 2021.

3.Other statistics

（1）938 judgments were published online.

（2）The rate of live broadcast of hearings was 61.49%.

（3）By the end of 2022, the rate of electronic filing reached 99.52%.

（Ⅱ）Highlights

1. The Court has endeavored to serve the new pattern of development of marine economy. It properly concluded China’s first case of dispute over marine insurance contract regarding a deep-sea fish farm, which has provided a solid guarantee for promoting the new form of marine economy called “Fishing and Farming at Sea”. It tried 553 cases of new type concerning dispute over foreign-related contract of carriage of goods by sea arising from the COVID epidemic that involved a total value of over RMB 20 million, which maintained the smoothness and orderliness in the important channels on the Maritime Silk Road. It accepted 155 cases involving Taiwan elements, nearly 10 times more than the last year, which reflected a significant increase of the credibility of the Court in the trial of Taiwan-related maritime cases.

2. The Court has strived to foster an internationalized and law-based business environment. It innovatively developed a “Three Ones Program” for the trial of foreign-related maritime cases, specifically, “Establish One Specialized Adjudicative Body”—the Court has established Xiamen Foreign-Related Maritime Tribunal, China’s first adjudicative body specialized in trying foreign-related maritime cases, “Publishing One Specialized Judicial Guide for Foreign-Related Maritime Trial”—the Court has issued the first judicial guide for the collection of extraterritorial evidence among the maritime courts across the country, and “Producing One Group of Model Cases of Foreign-Related Maritime Trial”—the Court has made innovations on adjudication methods and rules to create innovative and exemplary model cases of foreign-related maritime trial, with one case being listed in the Third Group of Model Cases Involving Building of the “Belt and Road” published by the Supreme People’s Court. This work mechanism was recognized as an excellent innovation case in Xiamen in 2022.

3. The Court has devoted itself to escorting the construction of marine ecological civilization. It concluded Fujian’s first civil public interest litigation filed by a procuratorial authority to claim for compensation for damage to marine natural resources and ecological environment where the Court innovatively ordered for performance by “ocean carbon sink & alternative restoration”. It concluded the high-profile case of damages for environment pollution arising from the C9 leakage event in Quangang, Fujian where the Court entered China’s first judgment on a public interest litigious case involving pollution to both the marine and atmospheric ecological environment. It published a white paper on the judicial protection of the marine ecological environment and issued relevant model cases, to showcase its judicial theories and achievements in the protection of marine ecological environment.

4. The Court has worked hard to increase the people’s sense of fulfillment. It greatly improved the “1+7+N” work mechanism adopting marine “Fengqiao Experience” that was first created by the Court among the maritime courts across the country. It concluded a case of confirmation of an administrative mediation agreement and the case was recognized as a model case of governance of litigation source by Fujian courts. Its detached tribunals coordinated with local courts and carried out activities such as “interpretation of law by cases”, “sending law to the countryside” and “lecturing for education of law”. The number of cases resolved by pre-litigation mediation in Dongshan Tribunal exceeded the number of cases accepted for the first time.

5. The Court has consolidated and expanded its achievements in solving enforcement difficulties. It carried out the “Spring Thunder Operation” to efficiently conclude a series of enforcement cases involving distribution of creditor’s rights against wage-owing enterprises. It helped seafarers to recover salaries amounting to RMB 6.6 million in two months, which case was listed as one of the Top Ten Enforcement Cases of Courts in Fujian Province in 2022. It enforced in good faith the judgment of compensation for the personal injury/deaths of Mr. Lei, et al., which case was recognized as a Model Case of Fujian Courts in Escorting the “Good Faith Prospers Commerce” Campaign.

6. The Court has continued to deepen the implementation of the strategy of producing fine works on trial. Two of its cases were selected as national model cases; ten cases, one court hearing and one judicial advice were respectively recognized as provincial selected cases and excellent case analysis, one of the provincial Top Ten Fine Hearings, and provincial excellent judicial advice; one foreign-related civil ruling was posted on the Law Reports published by a famous UK press.

7. The Court has enhanced the cultivation of versatile and high-level talents for foreign-related trials. One judge was selected as a “Case Handling Model of National Courts”, and three judges were recognized as “Trial Experts in Fujian Province”.

II.  Main features of cases

（I）Conventional admiralty and maritime cases continued to be the majority of newly-accepted cases, and the Court has achieved good results in the governance of litigation source and enforcement source

In the year of 2022, 2449 contentious cases were accepted by the Court, 2134 of which were concluded, respectively up 72.47% and 69.77% over the previous year. In terms of the case category, the number of newly-accepted cases concerning dispute over a maritime contract increased sharply to 1336 from 725 in 2021, showing a year-on-year increase by 84.28%, among which the number of cases concerning dispute over contract of carriage of goods by sea rose to top 1. Other conventional admiralty and maritime cases, such as cases concerning dispute over seaman service contract, cases concerning dispute over contract of freight forwarding by sea, cases concerning dispute over contract of supply of ship’s stores and spare parts, cases concerning dispute over liability for personal injury at sea and cases concerning dispute over confirmation of maritime claims still took a major part in the cases newly accepted throughout the year of 2022 and ranked top in terms of the number of cases. In 2022, 139 cases were settled by pre-litigation mediation, of which the parties to 85 cases applied for judicial confirmation of the mediation agreements, 54 cases were not filed as the parties actively performed the mediation agreements, and 633 enforcement cases were newly accepted, showing a year-on-year decrease by 32.2%, which reflect the Court’s efforts to resolve disputes from the source and facilitate the automatic performance of effective judgments, as well as its great achievements in the governance of litigation source and enforcement source.

Top 10 Causes of Action of Admiralty and Maritime Cases Newly-Accepted in 2022

（Ⅱ）Cases concerning dispute over contract of carriage of goods by sea increased sharply due to the COVID-19 epidemic, and the Court’s practice of exemplary adjudication facilitated the dispute resolution

In 2022, 660 cases concerning dispute over contract of carriage of goods by sea were newly accepted by the Court, showing a year-on-year increase by 468%, of which more than 500 cases were a series of cases concerning dispute over container demurrage and detention in foreign-related carriage of goods by sea field by domestic cargo interests such as a Fuzhou-based import and export trading company against major shipping lines such as Sealand Maersk Asia Pte. Ltd and CMA CGM Asia Shipping Pte. Ltd. The cargo interests raised objection to the amounts of demurrage and detention and requested for adjustment on the ground that the extended use of containers was attributed to the COVID-19 prevention and control measures. During the trial, the Court sticked to the guiding principle of fairness, took full consideration of the strictness of implementation and duration of the government’s mandatory measures, the performance costs of both parties, whether any party was at fault and the degree of fault, whether the parties had fulfilled the obligation to mitigate loss and other factors to balance the rights and interests of both the ship side and cargo interests, and through analysis of similar cases, careful study and judgment, convening professional judges’ meeting and otherwise, established an adjudication idea of flexibly distinguishing and handling cases by time period: with respect to the demurrage and detention incurred within three months after the State Council issued the Notice on Issuing the Work Plan for Preventive Comprehensive Disinfection of Imported Cold Chain Food, it may be adjusted appropriately by a discount of 20%-30% based on a strict grasp of causal relationship between the COVID-19 prevention and control measures and the extended container clearance time; with respect to the demurrage and detentions incurred three months after the said Notice was issued, it may not be adjusted as the COVID-19 prevention and control measures had been normalized and the commercial risk of demurrage and detention was reasonably foreseeable. Following such adjudication idea, the Court rendered judgments on representative cases, and driven by exemplary effective judgments, most of the cases were concluded either by mediation or withdrawal. The good effect of “governing similar cases by handling one single case” has been fully brought into play, effectively maintaining the order of the shipping market in the shipping center of Southeast China.

（III）The value of subject matters of the cases newly-accepted by the detached tribunals has greatly increased, giving more play to their role in serving the development of local economy

In 2021 and 2022, the subject matters of the cases newly accepted by the Court’s detached tribunals in Fuzhou, Dongshan and Ningde respectively valued in aggregate at RMB 446 million and RMB 295 million, far exceeding the value of RMB 102 million in 2020. In 2022, there were 22 newly-accepted cases involving a subject matter valuing over RMB 1 million, one of which valued over RMB 10 million; in 2021, there were 29 newly-accepted cases involving a subject matter valuing over RMB 1 million, four of which valued over RMB 10 million. The main reason for such increase for two consecutive years was that the Court adjusted the cap on the value of the subject matter of a case to be accepted by its detached tribunal from RMB 1 million to RMB 30 million at the end of 2020. Such adjustment has adapted to the continuous deepening of the ocean development and marine construction and the increase of maritime commercial activities such as harbor and waterway engineering, marine transportation, purchase and sale of ships, fishery and aquaculture and related financing and insurance and their amount of transaction in its jurisdiction. By accepting more cases, the detached tribunals expanded their scope of judicial services and better met the judicial needs in their jurisdiction, giving more play to their role in serving the development of local marine economy.

III. Special issues in the 2022 trials and recommendations

（I）Improve the management of shipping risks of new offshore engineering equipment

In recent years, a number of new offshore engineering equipment, such as offshore wind farms, aquaculture farms and leisure tourism platforms, have been gradually manufactured and put into operation. In 2022, the Court concluded China’s first case of dispute over marine insurance contract regarding a deep-sea fish farm. The deep-sea fish farm “HAIXIA 1”, the subject matter of the insurance contract, was about 140 meters in diameter, 40 meters in total height, and had a total transportation weight of more than 10,000 tons. In March 2020, the fish farm was transported by a semi-submersible ship from Zhejiang to the waters of Fujian for installation, setting a new record for domestic roll-on and roll-off cargo transportation dimensions. The fish farm was insured against all risks of maritime cargo transportation subject to the Institute Cargo Clauses (A) 01/01/2009. During transportation, the fish farm was damaged, resulting in repair costs and relevant expense of about RMB 13 million, and a lawsuit was then filed before the Court due to dispute over insurance claim. The Court, by conducting a detailed analysis of the cause of the accident and accurately interpreting the insurance clauses, determined that the damage was caused by failure to fulfill effective lashing and securing and fell within the coverage of the insurance and decided that the insurer should bear the compensation liability.

New offshore engineering equipment is characterized by large size, high value and high maritime risks. As the manufacture, transportation, installation and operation of the equipment involve many parties, there were complex legal relationships and professional issues in engineering technology and insurance were outstanding. Seen from the problems exposed during the proceeding of the case, e.g., there were flaws in both parties’ investigation and evidence production with respect to the cause of the accident, their understanding of the insurance clauses was rough and the organization and implementation of offshore production operations were not standardized enough, the management of maritime risks in the production, transportation and operation of the new offshore engineering equipment needs to be further enhanced in practice. From the perspective of preventing and resolving disputes, it is recommended that relevant enterprises refer to relevant operation procedures and standards, and, in addition to internal supervision, establish a communication mechanism to communicate with third-party technical consulting firms, insurance adjusters, legal service providers and other professional institutions, to use the social resources to effectively improve their ability to control and respond to risks. It is also hoped that the industry will strengthen research on insurance clauses, further clarify the boundaries of risk-taking, improve insurance products and optimize insurance services.

（II）Enhance the legal capacity of Chinese enterprises to deal with foreign-related disputes

With the in-depth promotion of high-standard opening up and the building of the Belt and Road, the number of foreign-related maritime cases tried by the Court has increased in recent years, especially disputes arising from the business dealings of Chinese enterprises with foreign parties or in connection with their “go global” investments. Normally, in general foreign-related maritime cases, the two parties were well-matched in their confrontation against each other. Except for unique factors in particular cases, the “front end” of the litigation, i.e., a party’s arrangement for dispute resolution at the beginning of the business had greater effect upon the adjudication result. The Chinese enterprises did not pay enough attention to this, so they often became passive in litigation or arbitration, eventually losing the lawsuit and sustaining huge losses. Sometimes they were even devastated and on the verge of bankruptcy due to a lawsuit.

Based on the above, it is recommended that when entering into commercial contracts with foreign parties, Chinese enterprises should: (1) change their one-sided emphasis on commercial profits (negotiating only on the substantive terms of the transaction but ignoring legal risk management in dispute resolution), adapt to the new situation of international competition, and place legal risk management and control in a prominent position in their business strategy; (2) align with the direction of international business development, comprehensively integrate policies, mechanisms, talents, resources and other factors, carry out planning, allocate resources, improve their own legal capability, and implement legal risk prevention and control; and (3) uphold a systemic concept and improve the dispute resolution mechanism; it is recommended that Chinese enterprises analyze, compare or even appropriately try various dispute resolution methods to develop a clear dispute resolution strategy internally and actively strive for the initiative to choose a dispute resolution institution and method during contract negotiations externally; and (4) the relevant industry associations should play an integrated role in increasing Chinese enterprises’ awareness of foreign-related legal risks, such as taking the lead in organizing surveys on common issues faced by the industry and proposing relevant countermeasures and suggestion, to provide support for the entire industry to improve its risk prevention and control capability as a whole.

（III）Improve the implementation mechanism for the purchase of ocean carbon sink to restore the marine ecological environment

In 2022, the Court tried Fujian’s first marine-environment-related public interest litigation filed by a procuratorial authority. In the case, the Court integrated the damage compensation mechanism and the development of ocean carbon sink and innovatively created a new mode of performance of “ocean carbon sink + alternative restoration”, which effectively resolved the dispute and promoted the restoration of the marine environment. However, during the trial, there were obstacles in applying the ocean carbon sink trading to the judicial practice, such as whether the ocean carbon sink purchased by the litigant can restore the damaged sea area in situ. According to Article 20 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Hearing of Environment-Related Civil Public Interest Lawsuits, only when the damaged ecological environment cannot be fully restored, may alterative restoration be allowed. In other words, purchasing ocean carbon sink can only be applied as alternative restoration method under the premise that the damage to the ecological environment caused by the conduct of the defendant cannot be directly repaired. As the ocean is vast and fluid, it is difficult to restore the marine environment directly, which means there is large room for the application of alternative restoration. Nevertheless, considering the provisions and legal principles for the alternative restoration itself, the sea area to be restored should be related to the damaged sea area in terms of relevancy in type, substitutability in function and contiguity in geography. However, in the current judicial practice, most of the relevant judgments merely stated the amount of the carbon sink to be purchased and the purchase method, without describing the calculation basis of the carbon sink volume, the use of the carbon sink fund and the specific use plan, failing to reflect that the carbon sink fund is actually used to restore the damaged sea area in situ. Given this, it is recommended that legislations on the application of ocean carbon sink trading as alternative restoration be enhanced and refined to improve the implementation mechanism for the purchase of ocean carbon sink to restore the marine ecological environment and regulate the procedures for purchase of ocean carbon sink. Meanwhile, in the judicial practice, it is necessary to strengthen the monitoring of the use of the ocean carbon sink fund and the use plan and make it clear that the best way to use the ocean carbon sink fund is to increase the ocean carbon sink in the same ecological function area.

IV.  Conclusions

In the year of 2022, with a focus on setting the stage for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and studying, publicizing and implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the CPC, Xiamen Maritime Court has consciously shouldered the historic mission of stepping up efforts to build China into a maritime power, giving full play to its characteristic of specialized adjudication to fully promote the high-quality development of maritime adjudication. In the next year, Xiamen Maritime Court will continue to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the CPC, and strive to open a new ground for its work at a higher starting point, to provide powerful maritime judicial services for building China into a modern socialist country in all respects.