White Paper (2023): Cases and Statistics

 

I.   Overview

 

(I) Basic statistics

 

1.Statistics on cases accepted and concluded

 

Throughout the year of 2023, the Court in total handled 2792 cases[1], including 2418 cases newly accepted and 374 cases left over from previous years. Compared with the statistics of 2022 on a year-on-year basis, the number of newly-accepted cases decreased by 15.75%. 2543 cases were concluded, down 8.89% on the previous year, but the clearance rate was 91.08%, up 2.9% over the previous year.

 

In 2023, the Court in total handled 2030 contentious cases, 1715 of which were newly accepted (consisting of 1198 first-instance admiralty and maritime cases, 152 maritime administrative cases, 1 criminal case, and 364 other cases). The subject matters of the newly-accepted contentious cases valued in aggregate at about RMB 2,900,041,700. 1838 contentious cases were concluded in the year (consisting of 1323 first-instance admiralty and maritime cases, 68 maritime administrative cases, 1 criminal case, and 446 other cases), amongst which 653 cases were concluded by judgment, 296 settled through mediation, 359 withdrawn and 530 concluded by other means, making the clearance rate of contentious cases reach 90.54%, up 3.4% over the previous year.

In the year, the Court in total handled 762 enforcement cases, 703 of which were newly accepted and involved a total value of about RMB 762,184,500. The year also saw the Court concluding 705 enforcement cases, with effective enforcement value totaling about RMB 1,272,368,200. The clearance rate of enforcement cases reached 92.52%, up 0.76% over the previous year.

 

In the year, the Court actually arrested 80 vessels, and sold at auction 45 vessels, 26 house properties, one factory building and the right to use sea areas in one case, with the hammer prices totaling up to RMB 280 million, showing an increase of 104% in the number of auctions and an increase of 47% in the total amount of hammer prices on a year-on-year basis. The rate of cases in which the enforcement objects are realized reached 69.23%.

 

2.      Quality and efficiency of trial and enforcement

 

(1)     The case-to-proceeding ratio (composite indicator) was 1:1.74.

 

(2)     The appeal rate (negative indicator) was 21.74%.

 

(3)     The rate of first-instance decisions being remanded for retrial (negative indicator) was 0.654%.

 

(4)     The rate of clearance within statutory period for trial was 89.59%.

 

(5)     The average time to conclude a case (negative indicator) was 92.47 days.

 

(6)     22.55% of cases were successfully diverted to pre-litigation mediation and the rate of mediation was 21.37%.

 

(7)     The rate of application for enforcement of civil judgments (negative indicator) was 68.37%.

 

(8)     The case-to-complaint ratio (negative indicator) was 1:0.0064.

 

3.        Other statistics

 

(1)     964 judgments were published online.

 

(2)     The rate of live broadcast of hearings was 65.89%.

 

(3)     The rate of electronic filing reached 99.59%.

 

(II)             Highlights

 

1.        The Court implemented the new development philosophy and served the high-quality development of the marine economy at a high level. It actively integrated into the building of “Maritime Fujian”, formulated the “Working Opinions on Strengthening Maritime Judicial Service Guarantee to Spur the Growth of the Private Sector”, issued model cases of serving the development of the private sector, and promoted the building of a modern marine industrial system. One case concluded by it concerning dispute over a contract of carriage of goods by sea was listed in the top ten high-quality cases of Fujian courts, and its relevant judicial suggestion promoted the corresponding amendments to the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on International Marine Transport, which was selected as one of the top ten judicial suggestions of Fujian courts. It created a preferred forum for the resolution of international maritime disputes, formulated the “Working Opinions on Comprehensively Integrating into the Building of the Maritime Silk Road Central Legal District”, and established China’s first 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Maritime Dispute Mediation-Litigation Coordination Center. In the serial cases related to the COVID-19 epidemic which involved Maersk and other well-known international shipping companies, the Court facilitated the settlement and withdrawal of 85% of the cases, which was written in the report on the work of Fujian courts delivered at the 2024 Fujian Two Sessions. The Court committed itself to escorting the building of marine ecological civilization and, together with Xiamen Intermediate People’s Court, established the Xiamen Judicial and Governmental Collaboration Platform for Ecological Protection in conjunction with the procuratorate, the public security bureau, the bureau of justice, the bureau of natural resources, the bureau of ecology and environment, etc.. The Court concluded Fujian’s first civil public interest litigation case filed by a procuratorial authority to claim for compensation for damage to marine ecology where the Court innovatively ordered for performance by “ocean carbon sink & alternative restoration”, which was listed in the Model Maritime Trial Cases of Chinese Courts published by the Supreme People’s Court.

 

2.      The Court focused on the integrated development across the Taiwan Strait and optimized the supply of Taiwan-related maritime justice from a big picture. Based on the functions and regional advantages of it as a specialized court, the Court promoted the establishment of the Cross-Strait Maritime Judicial Research Center and improved the reform of the Taiwan-related maritime trial organization system. It concluded China’s first case in which an adjustment report issued by a Taiwanese GA adjuster was directly admitted, and for its accurate application of international practice, the case was selected as one of the model cases of application of international treaties and practices to foreign-related civil and commercial cases published by the Supreme People’s Court. It mediated a series of disputes over the remuneration of 165 crew members dispatched by a Taiwanese enterprise to a distant-water fishing company in Mainland China, enhancing the judicial recognition of Taiwanese litigants. Joint with MSA Xiamen, Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Justice and other 9 authorities, the Court established the China’s first Taiwan-related maritime dispute resolution center, providing one-stop, multi-option, efficient and convenient services for people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and assisting in the building of a demonstration zone for the integrated development across the Taiwan Strait.

 

3.      The Court adhered to the tenet of “Justice for the People” and efficiently increased the people’s sense of fulfillment with high quality. In improving the litigation sources governance system based on the double grids “territory + industry”, the Court’s Fuzhou tribunal established the Fuzhou Seafarers’ Rights Protection Center in conjunction with other relevant authorities, and its Ningde tribunal and Dongshan tribunal played the role of “bridgehead” in setting up a number of maritime mediation centers and one-stop dispute resolution centers with local sea-related authorities, making the number of disputes resolved by pre-litigation mediation increase by 21.8% over the previous year and the relevant mechanism awarded a Good Case of Reform in Xiamen. In responding to the people’s expectation for judicial service, the Court set up circuit trial stations and case handling stations in the Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Zone and Huangqi Town, Lianjiang, providing convenient litigation services for the people at their doorsteps. The Court strengthened its protection of the people's rights and interests, e.g., it sold various properties at auction in a total amount of RMB 255 million, including 45 vessels inclusive of bulk carriers and fishing vessels, showing a year-on-year increase of nearly 19.2%. The case in which the Court recovered RMB 6.6 million of wages for 83 crew members was selected as one of the “Top 10” model cases of enforcement involving migrant workers’ wages published by the Supreme People’s Court and it was the only case selected from Fujian courts.

 

4.      The Court focused on the main theme of impartiality and efficiency and promoted the modernization of the trial system at a high standard. With a focus on the full and faithful enforcement of the judicial accountability, the Court paid particular attention to formulating rules and regulations, conscientiously implemented the system of review by the president or the chief judge and continued to promote the president or the chief judge to take the lead in handling cases. The Court organized case quality assessments, held analysis meetings on its cases remanded for retrial or its decisions amended by a superior court, took actions to address long pending cases, and strengthened the supply of trial resources from judges conference and the adjudication committee, which have strongly contributed to the improvement of the quality of trials and the governance of derivative cases. By deepening the implementation of the strategy of high-quality maritime trial, the Court had 3 cases selected as model cases throughout the country and 17 cases selected as model cases or good cases in Fujian Province.

 

5.      The Court implemented full and rigorous self-governance over the Party and the court and strengthened the foundations for the development of maritime justice from a high starting point. By steadily launching theoretical study of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and deepening the implementation of the young official training project, the Court’s working mechanism of “Four Classes” on clerk management was awarded “Innovative Initiative in Political Building”, and the Court and its officials won two national-level honors such as outstanding individual in the courts throughout the country and eight provincial-level honors such as outstanding collective in Fujian courts and outstanding judge of Fujian. By setting up China’s first legal culture park themed on maritime law as its culture exhibition center, releasing a bilingual white paper on maritime trial in Chinese and English for six consecutive years, and having its work achievements reported for 15 times by “CCTV News”, “People’s Court Daily”, “Legal Daily” and other central media, the Court actively spread the good voice of maritime justice.

 

II.               Main features of cases

 

(I)      Newly-accepted contentious cases changed in their types and the Court accepted the first maritime criminal case

 

In the year of 2023, 1715 contentious cases were newly accepted by the Court, down 23.33% on the previous year. The year also witnessed some remarkable changes in the types of the newly-accepted contention cases: (1) the number of admiralty and maritime cases decreased to 1198, down 17.55% on the previous year, particularly the number of cases concerning dispute over contract of carriage of goods by sea which rank top 1 in 2022 fell down to No.5, while the number of cases concerning dispute over seaman service contract sharply rose to the first place. The main reason for such change is that most of the cases concerning dispute over contract of carriage of goods by sea in 2022 arose from the incurrence of demurrage due to the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control measures taken by the port of destination, which led to great dispute between the carrier and the shipper on who should be liable for the demurrage. However, with the change of the epidemic prevention and control measures in 2023, such reason was basically eliminated and the number of corresponding disputes thus significantly declined; (2) the number of maritime administrative cases increased significantly to 152, up 85.37% over the previous year, jumping to No.3 among the various contention cases. Such increase on the one hand reflects that, while ocean management was further strengthened and the protection of marine ecology was further enhanced with the deepening of the building of a powerful marine province, the development of the maritime industry also resulted in the gathering of the wealth at sea, leading to an increase in disputes between the relevant interested parties, and on the other hand reflects the positive trends that the Court’s administrative litigation service became more professional and that the Court’s credibility was further enhanced; (3) the number of ship-related cases increased. Compared with 2022, the number of cases concerning dispute over charter party, ship repair contract and voyage charter party all increased significantly, back to the top ten list, reflecting the good trend of further recovery of the ship leasing and repair markets; (4) The Court for the first time heard a maritime criminal case. Approved by the Supreme People's Court, in 2023 the Court accepted and pronounced judgment in court on a case of illegal sand mining and incidental civil public interest litigation transferred for prosecution by the Xiamen People’s Procuratorate. This was the Court’s first criminal case and incidental civil public interest ligation approved by the Supreme People's Court since the Court launched the pilot reform of “3-in-1” trial of civil, administrative and criminal matters, which effectively deterred illegal mining of sea sand, promoted the restoration and protection of the marine ecological environment, further expanded the functions of maritime justice to provide service and guarantee for building China into a strong maritime country, and strengthened the judicial control over maritime security and order.

 

Causes of Action of Top 10 Contentious Cases Newly-Accepted in 2023

 

(II)   The number of cases concerning dispute over right to use sea areas significantly increased and the Court deepened its involvement in local governance

 

Among the cases newly-accepted by the Court in 2023, the number of cases concerning dispute over right to use sea areas increased significantly, reaching 130, showing a year-on-year increase of 42.86%. Such cases were mainly accepted by the Court’s detached tribunals, including 66 cases accepted by its Ningde tribunal and 47 cases accepted by its Dongshan tribunal. Characterized by most of the plaintiffs being companies and claiming for rent of their right to use sea areas, such cases before the Ningde tribunal increased mainly because the lessees failed to pay rent due to the post-epidemic economy in recovery stage and the periodicity of the sale of aquatic products, leading to companies’ pursuit of rent in the low season for fishing. Considering such cases involved mass disputes and related to people’s livelihood, the Ningde tribunal intensified its mediation efforts and resolved the disputes basically through settlement or withdrawal of claim to the satisfaction of both the companies and the lessees. While in such cases accepted by the Dongshan tribunal, most of the disputes originated from Jiuzhen Town which is an ancient town in Zhangpu County and involved multiple interested parties including new and original lessees and village collectives, as well as some local key projects and the work of liquidation of funds, assets and resources of village collective economic organizations, which involved complex conflicts and problems carried over from the history. In addition to visiting the villages and towns three times to coordinate the parties to accept mediation, the Dongshan tribunal actively explored a long-term preventive mechanism for disputes over the right to use sea areas, seeking to resolve from the root the disputes and problems arising from the administration of the right to use sea areas and the earnings from the use of sea areas, and actively played its role as a “bridgehead” in strengthening governance of litigation source and safeguarding local stability.

 

(III)     The number of FTZ-related cases gradually increased and exemplary judgments promoted the building of a law-based business environment

 

In 2023, the number of cases concerning marine engineering related to the free trade zone (FTZ) climbed, reaching 17 throughout the year. Such cases involved provincial-level and municipal-level key projects such as building of coastal wetland parks and fishing harbors, installation of offshore wind power facilities, and dredging and reclamation projects. By trying the cases in accordance with the law, the Court further clarified the right boundary of the parties, promoted the standardized operation of the sea-related engineering industry, and gave full play to its function of providing maritime judicial services to safeguard marine engineering. Moreover, as more enterprises engaged in marine salvage were registered in the FTZ, the number of cases concerning dispute over marine salvage also increased year by year. Throughout the year of 2023, the Court in total accepted 6 cases concerning dispute over marine salvage or pollution prevention and clean-up. Such cases were characterized by complicated parties, high amount of claim, weak evidence provided by the salvor, etc., and the salved parties always invoked Article 176 of the Maritime Code of the People’s Republic of China to seek modification to the salvage contract after salvage. The salvage contract is considered as a “weak consensus” contract as it is often concluded in sudden and unexpected circumstances with strong intervention by MSA, and the shipowners and insurers may have different views on how many salvage resources should be deployed. If for various considerations the parties fail to clearly express their intents, this could lead to discrepancy between the appearance of right and the actual right, as well as discrepancy between the expressed intent and the real intent. In such circumstances, if the salvor performed the salvage operations in reliance on the salved party and successfully salvaged the property in distress, the court should protect his reliance interest and expectation interest according to the law. In the trial of such cases, the Court respected and strengthened the contract autonomy of employment salvage, protected the reliance interest of the party to whom the intent was expressed based on objectivism, and timely handed down judgments, which achieved a balance between the interests of the party performing the act and the party to whom the intent was expressed, effectively maintained the safety of transactions and encouraged the salvage companies to undertake marine salvage.

 

III.           Special issues in the 2023 trials and recommendations

(I)                Strengthen the regulation and supervision of sea angling

 

Sea angling has emerged as a new type of tourism and leisure business along the coast in recent years, but it is also an outdoor leisure activity that carries certain risks. It is not rare that personal injury and death accidents have occurred due to sea angling in recent years. During the trial of cases concerning dispute over liability for personal injury at sea, our judges noted some problems in the sea angling industry, such as the operators failed to fulfill their safety obligation, the fishing spots were too far from shore, and the sea anglers lacked safety awareness. To guide a sound and healthy development of sea angling as a new type of business, it is recommended that: (1) local legislation should be strengthened. To regulate sea angling behaviors, protect marine resources and ensure the safety and order of sea angling activities, local regulations with local characteristics should be formulated to comprehensively regulate sea angling from the management system, code of conduct, vessel management, industrial development and legal responsibility and strengthen the guidance and supervision on the sea angling industry. Some prefecture-level cities have already made useful explorations in legislative efforts, e.g., Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province promulgated the Management Measures of Zhoushan Municipality for Sea Angling in the National Marine Special Protected Area; (2) industry standards should be reinforced. A specialized sea angling regulatory body should be established to take the lead, make clear division of duties among relevant authorities, and fully coordinate, guide and supervise the collective development of the sea angling industry. The sea angling association should be given certain industry management authority to formulate relevant industry standards on the safety scope, safety measures etc. for sea angling, so that the sea angling association can better play its role and assist the competent authorities in strengthening their administration of the sea angling industry; (3) more efforts should be exerted to develop new insurance products for sea angling. On the one hand, insurance companies should intensify their research and development of specialized accident insurance products for sea angling activities and encourage sea anglers to purchase specialized insurance to improve the accuracy of protection; on the other hand, liability insurance for operators and comprehensive insurance for vessels should be developed to increase resilience to risks. Meanwhile, sea anglers should be fully aware of any danger involved in sea angling, strengthen their awareness of safety and precautions, and take part in specific sea angling trivialities that are appropriate for their individual conditions.

 

(II)             Apply the principle of “punishment commensurate with the offense” in administrative punishment

 

During the trial of maritime administrative cases involving illegal occupation of sea areas, our judges noted that many administrative authorities did not give punishment subject to the specific situation, but mechanically applied Article 42 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Sea Areas which states “…shall be ordered to return the illegally occupied sea areas, restore them to their original state”. For instance, a built bridge was ordered to be restored to its original state because some of its piers exceeded the scope of sea areas for which the certificate of right to use sea areas had been obtained; a multi-billion-yuan (RMB) offshore wind power facility was ordered to be restored to its original state because the application for use of sea areas had not yet been approved; an offshore typhoon shelter facility, which was a project financed by the public treasury and designed to address the people's practical concerns, was ordered to be restored to its original state because the certificate of right to use sea areas had not been obtained; the public welfare facility of a fishing harbor, for which the preliminary formalities for using the sea areas had been gone through and the certificate of right to use sea areas was likely to be obtained, was also ordered to be restored to its original state. Such punishments violate the principle of “punishment commensurate with the offense”, which principle requires any administrative punishment should be commensurate with the facts, nature and circumstances of the relevant illegal act, as well as the degree of social harm caused thereby. In the said cases, the punishment of “reinstatement” was applied mechanically without full consideration of the nature and circumstances of the act of illegal occupation of the sea areas in specific cases. This approach, in terms of legal effect, is not in line with the principles of legality, reasonableness and effectiveness of administrative punishment, and in term of social effect, may lead to a waste of assets. Moreover, it is not conducive to the building of a mutually beneficial and promoting relationship between the people's livelihood and the protection of marine ecology. Hence, it is recommended that the administrative authorities, when imposing punishment on any act of illegal occupation of sea areas whose circumstances and consequence of social harm are both minor and can be rectified by completing further formalities for using the sea area, should take more humane and flexible law enforcement measures, fully consider the purpose of such law enforcement, the reasonableness of such administrative punishment, and the integration and mutual reinforcement of the people’s livelihoods and the ecological protection, and impose a fair and reasonable punishment pursuant to the provisions of the Administrative Punishment Law of the People's Republic of China concerning mitigation or exemption from punishment and in accordance with the said Article 42 the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Sea Areas, which in turn can lead the people to enhance their consciousness of ecological protection both in thought and action.

 

(III)          Further increase the overall strength of distant-water fisheries

 

Fujian Province is a major traditional fishery hub, and the distant-water fisheries industry, as a traditional industry in marine economy, is one of its advantageous industries, with the overall strength ranking top through the country. However, in recent years, due to policy change of countries giving access to fishing, the COVID-19 epidemic, crew shortage, insufficient funding etc., the distant-water fisheries industry has faced serious challenges in its production and development and experienced “massive closedown” of distant-water fishing companies. In 2023, the number of enforcement cases involving distant-water fishing increased, and the proportion of distant-water fishing vessels to the vessels sold at auction also increased, which show the industry was facing crisis. In order to timely solve problems, further expand and strengthen Fujian’s distant-water fisheries industry and promote the transformation and upgrading of the industry, it is recommended that: (1) an integrated fishery information service platform should be established and improved. Led by relevant authorities, a network platform providing information on fishing farms, fishing harbors, fishery policies and regulations, fish prices, fishing enterprises, fishing service agencies and weather conditions should be set up to enable distant-water fishing enterprises to better understand relevant policies and anticipate the market trend and help them, especially the small and micro private enterprises, to enhance their professionalism and resilience to risks; (2) more efforts should be exerted to the research and development, updating and upgrading of technology for new modernized fishing vessels. Renewal, remodeling and upgrading of distant-water fishing vessels and their supporting equipment should be actively promoted with a focus on high efficiency, energy conservation, environmental protection, and safety. The supervision over the use of loans provided for distant-water fishing enterprises should be strengthened, to ensure that the funds are used for enhancing fishing vessels’ capacity of modernization. Major shipbuilding enterprises may speed up the introduction of new-type distant-water fishing vessels, facilitate the digestion of technology and improve the shipbuilding levels, to build large-scale automated and energy-efficient fishing vessels that meet the international market access requirements. Colleges and universities may leverage their scientific research and development capacities and should be given prioritized support in respect of the scientific research funding, personnel training, laboratory construction etc., to promote the technological research and development of new-type fishing vessels, innovative fishing gear, fish-finding equipment and other hardware equipment and thereby drive the enhancement of independent innovation capacity of distant-water fishing equipment; (3) the distant-water fishing enterprises’ resilience to risks should be enhanced. Guidance should be given to the distant-water fishing enterprises to establish a specialized and internationalized legal team to collect and study the laws of any country and/or region where the operating sea area is located and carry out targeted training and education to its employees on legal knowledge and risks, to improve the scientific and legal level of its operation and management. Dissemination of international conventions, laws and regulations related to distant-water fishing should be intensified, and typical cases should be analyzed to identify legal risks and standardize the distant-water fishing operations. An irregular information notification mechanism should be explored and established, to keep abreast of the development of the distant-water fisheries industry and its need for judicial service, accurately anticipate potential disputes, and minimize the occurrence of related cases from the source.