Introduction
In 2020, Tianjin Maritime Court (“the Court”) took Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, thoroughly learned and carried out the spirit of the 19th National Congress of CPC, the second, third, fourth and fifth plenary sessions of the 19th Central Committee of CPC, and the plenary sessions of the 11th Municipal CPC Committee of Tianjin, and comprehensively carried out the spirit of the political and legal work conference of Central Committee of CPC, the political and legal work conference of Municipal CPC Committee, the national conference of presidents of higher people’s courts, and the municipal conference of court presidents. Taking the objective of “letting the people to feel fairness and justice in each judicial case”, it coordinated and promoted epidemic control, trial and enforcement, and comprehensively enhanced the maritime trial capability and the modernization of the trial system. With these efforts, the Court had remarkable achievements in all aspects, effectively safeguarded the economic and social stability, and provided effective judicial services and supports for the in-depth implementation of major national strategies such as coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the “Belt and Road” Initiative, and building up a strong maritime country as well as the “construction of modernized Tianjin in five aspects”.
I. Basic information on the cases handled
In 2020, while the situation in epidemic prevention and control was severe and many front-line judges were devoted to fighting the epidemic, the staff of the Court worked hard together to overcome the difficulties and successfully completed the annual tasks of trial and enforcement. The overall trial and enforcement of the Court had a continuous and stable upward trend, and the Court became one of the best among the intermediate and higher courts of Tianjin and made historic achievements in a number of quality and efficiency indicators.
(I) General information on the cases
1. Newly accepted cases
In 2020, the Court accepted 2,114 cases, including: 1,196 maritime civil and commercial cases (including 1,157 cases involving maritime commercial contracts and 39 cases involving maritime infringement dispute), with a year-on-year decrease of 8%; 8 maritime administration cases (including 3 cases involving confirmation of illegal administrative actions and 5 cases involving application for administrative enforcement), with a year-one-year decrease of 33%; 721 enforcement cases (including 471 cases involving first enforcement and resumed enforcement, 105 cases involving objection against enforcement, and 155 cases involving enforcement preservation), with a year-on-year increase of 13.72%; 189 other cases (including 78 cases involving non-litigation preservation review, 1 case involving judicial assistance, 8 cases involving creditor’s right registration, 1 case involving declaration of death, 3 cases involving challenging the judgment by the third party, 1 case involving judicial sanction, 94 cases involving payment order, and 3 other cases), with a year-on-year increase of 44.27%.
2. Closed cases
In 2020, the Court totally closed 2,191 cases, including: 1,256 maritime civil and commercial cases, with a year-on-year decrease of 18.71%; 11 maritime administration cases, with a year-on-year increase of 12.21%; 735 enforcement cases, with a year-on-year increase of 12.21%; 189 other cases such as cases involving non-litigation preservation, with a year-on-year increase of 29.45%.
(II) Basic characteristics of trial quality and efficiency
1. Historic achievements in trial and enforcement efficiency
Based on the significant improvement in the efficiency of trial and enforcement in 2019, in 2020 the Court further strengthened the management of trial time limits, and made historic achievements and reached a new high in the efficiency of trial and enforcement. These achievements include: 99.82% of cases were closed within the statutory trial time limits; the proportion of unclosed cases with extended trial period was 1.52%; the average trial period was 52.07 days, with a year-on-year decrease of 51.11 days; the average enforcement period was 37.90 days, with a year-on-year decrease of 30.01 days. In these indicators, the Court ranked first among the intermediate and higher courts of Tianjin. In 2020, the Court made greater efforts to settle accumulated cases. By the end of 2020, the Court had 7 outstanding cases not closed within one and a half years, with a year-on-year decrease of 8 cases, and had no outstanding cases not closed within three years.
2. Significant improvement in trial and enforcement effect
In 2020, the Court strictly carried out the “people-centered” judicial concept, firmly consolidated the ability of fair justice and diversified dispute resolution, and further improved the effect of trial and enforcement. The proportion of cases settled through mediation and lawsuit withdrawal was 64.93%, with a year-on-year increase of 3.96%; the proportion of cases without appeal after first-instance judgment was 83.20%. The Court ranked first among the intermediate and higher courts of Tianjin in these two indicators. In addition, the Court also ranked first among the intermediate and higher courts of Tianjin in terms of actual enforcement proportion of first enforcement cases, in-place enforcement proportion of first enforcement cases, and conclusion proportion of first enforcement cases, with a conformity rate of concluded cases up to 100%.
3. Continuously deepened judicial openness
In 2020, according to the requirement of “live broadcast as the principle and no live broadcast as an exception” for trial, the Court totally completed 470 live or recorded broadcasts of trial, with a year-on-year of 10.86 times and a trial live broadcast rate up to 28.41%, and ranking first among the intermediate and higher courts of Tianjin. The case information and procedure disclosure rate was 99.98% throughout the year, with a year-on-year increase of 0.25%; the effective disclosure rate reached 96.24%, with a year-on-year increase of 81.39%. Totally 1,492 effective judgments were released on China Judgments Online, with a judgment online release rate up to 96.85%.
II. Basic information on the maritime trials
1. Actively integrating the trial and enforcement into the overall economic and social development
The Court persisted in the implementation of the new development concepts, focused on the key areas of economic and social development, and effectively supported the in-depth implementation of major national strategies and the high-quality development of the city. It coordinated and promoted epidemic control, trial and enforcement, formulated the Opinions on Providing Effective Maritime Judicial Services and Supports for the COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention and Control and the Opinions on Bringing into Full Play the Maritime Trial Functions to Provide Judicial Services and Supports for the “Six Stability” and “Six Guaranteeing” Tasks, and, after the outbreak of the epidemic, properly handled the first case of national maritime courts in foreign ship seizure and judicial repatriation of foreign crew members. It released the Opinions of Tianjin Maritime Court on Serving the Construction of Xiongan New Area and Hebei Pilot Free Trade Zone, and the circuit tribunal further enhanced its judicial supports for the planning and construction of Xiongan New Area. It released the White Papers of Tianjin Maritime Court on Serving and Supporting the “Belt and Road” Initiative and ten typical cases to provide guidance for maritime enterprises to participate in the “Belt and Road” Initiative and accelerate export-oriented development. It actively optimized the business environment, issued 4 risk warning judicial advices to maritime enterprises such as Tangshan Port Group throughout the year, and established a judicial cooperation mechanism with the second and third intermediate courts and the Court of Binhai New Area to ensure the legalization of the business environment in Binhai New Area, receiving recognition from superiors. It strengthened judicial protection of the marine environment, assisted in the comprehensive management of the Bohai Sea, properly tried marine pollution cases involving entities such as Tangshan Fengyuan Ocean Anti-pollution Co., Ltd., and conducted in-depth investigations on judicial protection of the marine environment, with one report winning the first prize in the 4th National Environmental Resources Trial Excellent Achievement Appraisal.
2. Making great efforts to promote online litigation
Relying on the results of the smart court construction, the Court effectively overcame the impact of the epidemic on normal litigation activities, and provided a full range of “contactless” litigation services for parties under the epidemic. Through platforms such as the “Mobile Micro Court” and the official website of the Court, it offered online case filing services, and completed online acceptance of 349 cases and cross-region filing of 13 cases throughout the year. It carried out online document service using the centralized document service platform of Tianjin Higher Court, and served documents of 1,134 cases online throughout the year. It carried out online preservation of 15 cases through the online preservation system of Tianjin courts, involving total value of RMB 38 million. Relying on the litigation service website of Tianjin courts, it provided online file review services for parties, and there were totally 76 person-times of reading of files through the website throughout the year. It strengthened the application of Internet courts, held the first online trial in Tianjin after the outbreak of the epidemic, and completed a total of 107 online trials throughout the year. It fully utilized and expanded the “Internet +” enforcement mechanism, and completed 267 enforcement matters using such mechanism throughout the year, with an online auction rate of ship, real estate, cargo and other enforcement properties up to 100% and the highest premium rate up to 227%.
3. Comprehensively strengthening the “two one-stop” construction
The Court accelerated the construction of the one-stop multiple dispute resolution mechanism and the one-stop litigation service center, and continuously improved the ability of maritime justice to resolve disputes and serve the people. In accordance with the requirements of three-dimension, intensification and informatization, it transformed and upgraded the litigation service center, added hardware facilities such as guide desks and self-service areas for parties, increased the functions of the litigation service hall, and provided better experience of litigation service for the people. It further improved the mechanism for sorting between complex and simple legal cases, expanded the scope of application of simple procedures, and set up a quick trial office to ensure that the average trial period of quick trial cases was less than 20 days. It strengthened litigation source governance, deepened the connotation of the diversified dispute resolution mechanism, accepted 845 cases (including 645 pre-litigation mediation cases) relying on the people’s court mediation platform, and successfully closed 683 cases through mediation. It actively unblocked the litigation-mediation linkup channels, signed litigation-mediation linkup agreements with China International Freight Forwarders Association, Tianjin International Freight Forwarders Association, and Hebei International Freight Forwarders Association, and established the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Freight Forwarding Agency Dispute Mediation Center, which was reported by Xinhua News and the People’s Court Daily on the front page of the newspaper. In 2020, in the national dynamic evaluation of the quality and efficiency of litigation services of courts in China, the Court ranked first among the courts of Tianjin and the maritime courts in China.
4. Implementing the high quality case strategy on an in-depth basis
The Court firmly established the awareness of high quality maritime trials, further improved the trial assisting mechanism, and continuously enhanced the social credibility and international influence of Tianjin maritime justice. It gave full play to the role of the trial exchange platform, held 16 professional judge meetings throughout the year, organized the “Maritime Law Seminar” on a normalized and institutionalized basis, and further unified the judging ideas for difficult legal issues. It strengthened trainings on and publicity of the Civil Code, timely provided professional books on the Civil Code, and organized many events such as lectures of professors from Nankai University Law School to ensure the front-line judges’ accurate understanding and application of the Civil Code. It invited college scholars, maritime lawyers, etc. to a “Special Symposium on the Amendment of the Maritime Law and the Maritime Procedure Law” to enhance consensus and provide suggestions for maritime legislation improvement. It improved the screening and cultivation mechanism for high quality cases, and actively selected and submitted typical cases. In 2020, the “administrative sanction case of Zhizhen Chemical Technology Development Co., Ltd. vs. Beijiang Maritime Safety Administration and Tianjin Maritime Safety Administration” submitted by the Court was selected as both a typical case of national maritime trial and one of the top ten influential cases of the courts of Tianjin in 2019; one case was selected as one of the ten typical cases of Tianjin municipal administrations in optimizing the rule of law based business environment; two cases were selected as typical cases of Tianjin courts in supporting the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei.
5. Continuously enhancing the efficiency of judicial disclosure
The Court optimized and upgraded the judicial disclosure platforms, further expanded the breadth and depth of judicial disclosure, and promoted the construction of a more open, dynamic, transparent, and convenient judicial mechanism. It engaged 20 NPC deputies and CPPCC members as special supervisors to actively accept social supervision. It promoted the disclosure of trial process information and judgment documents, with a document online disclosure rate of 96.85%, and a case process information disclosure rate of 100%. It revised its internal and external websites, and strictly controlled the quality of the contents in its WeChat official account, which ranked second among the maritime courts of China in the number of likes and third in the annual reading times, leading to significantly improved effect of information disclosure on We Media. It effectively carried out press release, with 5 press conferences held and 3 white papers and 30 typical cases released throughout the year. It actively submitted articles to major news media, newspapers and periodicals such as the People’s Court Daily and Tianjin Daily, and more than 90 of those were adopted by the media, newspapers and periodicals, which helped to promptly convey the voice of maritime court and respond to social concerns.