Introduction
In 2021, Tianjin Maritime Court (“the Court”) took Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, and thoroughly carried out the spirit of the 19th National Congress of CPC, all plenary sessions of the 19th Central Committee of CPC, and implemented Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, understood the decisive meaning of “two establishments”, enhanced “four awareness”, firmed “four self-confidence” and achieved “two safeguarding”. Focusing on the objective of “striving to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case”, it actively performed the maritime judicial function to promote high-quality development of maritime trial and enforcement with a high degree of political consciousness.
I. Basic information of maritime trial and enforcement
In 2021, we adhered to the overall planning of epidemic prevention and control and trial enforcement, and the quality and efficiency indicators of trial enforcement remained in the forefront of the intermediate and high courts of the city.
(I) General information on the cases
1. Newly accepted cases. The Court accepted various types of 2,133 cases, with a year-on-year increase of 17.33%. Including: 1421 maritime civil and commercial cases with a year-on-year increase of 18.81%, 18 maritime administrative cases, with a year-on-year increase of 125.00%, 536 enforcement cases with a year-on-year increase of 26.12%, 147 cases with special proceedings with a year-on-year decrease of 21.39% and 11 other cases with a year-on-year increase of 2 cases.
2. Closed cases. The Court totally closed 2011 cases, with a year-on-year increase of 6.35%. Including: 1329 maritime civil and commercial cases with a year-on-year increase of 5.81%, 13 maritime administrative cases with a year-on-year increase of 18.18%, 522 enforcement cases with a year-on-year increase of 20.00%, 145 cases with special proceedings with a year-on-year decrease of 22.04% and 2 other cases, with a year-on-year decrease of 1 case.
3. Pending cases. As of December 31, 2021, there were 204 pending cases in the Court, with a year-on-year increase of 148.78%. Including 157 maritime civil and commercial cases, 5 maritime administrative cases, 29 enforcement cases, 10 judicial assistance cases and 3 cases with special proceedings.
4. The amount of subject matter involved in the case. In 2021, the amount of subject matter of newly accepted cases totaled to 7.278 billion Yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of 34.34% and that of closed cases was 6.053 billion Yuan, a year-on-year increase of 77.04%. Among the newly accepted cases, there were 24 cases with amount of subject matter more than 100 million Yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of 5 cases. There are 67 cases with amount more than 10 million Yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 12 cases and 180 cases with amount more than 1 million Yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of 12 cases.
5. Closed cases of detached tribunal. In 2021, the three detached tribunal of Qinhuangdao, Caofeidian and circuit court of the Court accepted various types of 544 new cases, with a year-on-year increase of 5.84%, accounting for 34.45% of the total number of maritime civil and commercial cases accepted by the Court, with a decrease of 2.15% compared with 2020. 515 cases were concluded, showing a year-on-year decrease of 5.33%, accounting for 34.89% of the total number of maritime civil and commercial cases concluded in the Court, and a decrease of 2.74% compared with 2020.
(II) Basic information of various types of cases
1. Cases of maritime commercial contract. 1372 maritime contract cases were accepted in the whole year, with a year-on-year increase of 18.58%. According to the cause of action, the causes of action with a large number of cases are as follows: 685 cases involving dispute over freight forwarding contract, 254 cases involving dispute over marine cargo transportation contract, 61 cases involving dispute over marine insurance contract, 39 cases involving dispute over labor contract of crew, 37 cases involving dispute over voyage and charter contract, 34 cases involving dispute over marine development and utilization, 26 cases involving dispute over the contract for supply of ship materials and spares, 20 cases involving dispute over port operation, 20 cases involving dispute over ship agency contract, accounting for 49.92%, 18.51%, 4.45%，2.84%, 2.69%, 2.48%, 1.89%, 1.46%, 1.46% of maritime commercial cases.
2. Maritime infringement cases. 49 maritime infringement disputes cases were accepted in the whole year, with a year-on-year increase of 25.64%. According to the causes of action, the causes of action with a large number of cases are as follows: 31 cases involving responsibility dispute over marine personal injury, 9 cases involving responsibility dispute over ship collision, 2 cases involving responsibility dispute over damage to breeding, 1 case involving responsibility dispute over marine property damage, 6 other maritime infringement cases, accounting for 63.27%, 18.36%, 4.08%, 2.04% and 12.24% of maritime infringement cases respectively.
3. Maritime administrative cases. 18 new maritime administrative cases were accepted in the whole year, with a year-on-year increase of 125%, including 4 cases of non-litigation administrative review, 5 cases of ordering to dismantle within a time limit, 3 cases of administrative confirmation, 3 cases of application for cancellation of administrative punishment and 3 administrative compensation cases.
4. Enforcement cases. 536 enforcement cases were accepted in the whole year, with a year-on-year increase of 26.12%. Among them, 473 cases were executed for the first time, with a year-on-year increase of 47.81%, and 63 cases of objection were executed, with a year-on-year decrease of 40.01%.
5. Cases with special proceeding. 147 cases with special proceeding were accepted, with a year-on-year decrease of 21.39%, including 63 non-litigation preservation review cases, 51 creditor’s right registration cases, 11 death declaration cases, 4 cases involving challenging the judgment by the third party, 12 payment orders, 3 cases of creditor's rights confirmation disputes and 3 cases of jurisdiction disputes.
II. Characteristics of trial enforcement cases in 2021
(I) Maritime logistics disputes account for a large proportion, and the special trial function of maritime affairs is brought into full play. In 2021, cases involving maritime logistics disputes such as disputes over maritime cargo transportation contract, disputes over voyage and charter contract, disputes over freight forwarding contract, disputes over ship agency contract, disputes over port operation and storage contract disputes accepted by the Court accounted for 48.19% of all cases and 74.93% of all maritime commercial contract cases. This fully reflected the functional characteristics of the maritime court and highlighted the functional role of maritime justice in maintaining the international shipping business order, serving the new development pattern and ensuring the stability of the industry chain and supply chain.
(II) Foreign related cases grew rapidly, highlighting the international influence of maritime justice. In the whole year, 172 cases with the parties involving foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were accepted, with a year-on-year increase of 42 cases, or margin of increase of 32.31%, accounting for 12.10% of the total number of maritime civil and maritime commercial cases in the Court; 153 cases were closed, with a year-on-year increase of 10 cases, margin of increase of 5.33%, accounting for 11.51% of the total number of maritime civil and maritime commercial cases concluded in the Court, and the amount of subject matter involved was 495 million Yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 2.06%. The cases involved 34 countries and regions, including Japan, the United States, Greece, Egypt, Denmark and Germany, and there 87 cases involving the countries along “Belt and Road”, accounting for 50.58% of the foreign related cases. In addition, the facts of many dispute cases of domestic parties occurred overseas and a batch of cases involves the international cooperation of “Belt and Road” Initiative, which highlighted the function of the Court in the service guarantee countries and Tianjin's opening up.
(III) The amount of environmental resources cases was relatively large, and maritime trials have great responsibilities in marine ecological environment protection. In 2021, we properly handled 39 civil cases of first instance involving disputes over liability for pollution damage to the marine environment and disputes over marine development and utilization, and 8 administrative cases of first instance involving marine environmental protection and the protection of the rights and interests of sea users, with a total amount of 1.466 billion Yuan. By giving full play to the functional role of maritime trial cross regional jurisdiction, we further promoted the protection of the ecological environment of the Bohai Sea, help standardize the sea related administrative law enforcement in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and formed a joint strength to maintain shipping safety and marine ecological security.
III. Giving full play to the function of maritime trial
(I) Making great efforts to promote one-stop multiple dispute resolution
We earnestly implemented the people-centered philosophy of development, further promoted one-stop multiple dispute resolutions and litigation services, and strove to improve the quality of litigation service, vigorously strengthened the standardized construction of litigation services, unified standards, completed the upgrading and transformation of Litigation Service Center, and realized the one-stop and one-time handling of major service matters such as case filing, mediation, preservation, charging and delivery in the Litigation Service Center. We strengthened the connection between litigation and mediation, set up a mediation office in Tianjin shipping center, and signed the Cooperation Agreement on Establishing the Connection Mechanism Between Litigation and Mediation for Maritime Disputes with the people's mediation committee of Tianjin Customs Brokers Association, which gave full play to the role of industry mediation. The Court continued to be in the forefront of the city's courts and the national maritime courts in the quality and efficiency evaluation indicators of the construction of one-stop multiple dispute resolution and litigation service system of national courts.
(II) Making great efforts to implement the strategy of high quality maritime trial
We promoted the diversion of complicated and simple cases, the separation of severity and speed of cases, explored the quick adjudication procedure, standardized the process, and improved the trial efficiency of simple cases. We improved the assessment and evaluation system and deepened the implementation of classification assessment of cases. In light of the professional characteristics of cases, we strengthened the construction of trial team, optimized the allocation of trial resources to reflect the quality and characteristics of specialized trial in special courts. We thoroughly implemented the opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Comprehensively Promoting the High Quality Strategy of Foreign-Related Commercial and Maritime Trials and Providing Strong Judicial Guarantee for Building an Open Economic System and Building a Strong Maritime Country, further strengthened organizational leadership, clarified tasks and objectives, formulated implementation plans, did a good job in the connection between case filing, trial and enforcement, comprehensively standardized the key cases from procedure to actual cases, cultivated, participated in and held professional training on international conventions, treaties, the application of foreign-related laws and foreign legal investigation, etc to consolidate the foundation of foreign-related judicial knowledge. We constructed the practice base for international shipping and international trade to enhance the ability for foreign related trial and practice. We strengthened research and cooperation exchange, broadened vision and learned from each other. Several cases were selected into the Top Ten Influential Cases of Tianjin Court In 2021, the Typical Cases of Tianjin Court Service Guarantee for the Coordinated Development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and the Typical Cases of the Head of Tianjin Administrative Organ Appearing in court; Three court trials were rated as the Annual Excellent Court Trials of Tianjin Court, and two judgment documents were rated as the Annual Excellent Judgment Documents.
(III) Putting forth effort to tackle key problems and "effectively solve the difficulty of enforcement"
In 2021, we focused on the work objective of “effectively solving the difficulty of enforcement” and paid close attention to “effectively solving the difficulty of enforcement” work and “3+1” core index of people’s court to ensure the optimal quality and efficiency of enforcement cases. In 2021, the closure rate of cases with property available for enforcement within the legal trial limit was 98.68%, the final qualification rate of cases without property available for enforcement was 100%, the completion rate of letters and visits was 100%, and the closure rate of enforcement cases was 95.66%, The “3+1” core index ranked in the forefront among the courts of the city. 174 dishonest persons subject to enforcement were announced in the whole year, 196 person/times high consumption were limited, and 19 judicial auctions were carried out online, including 10 auctions of ships, with a total volume of transaction of nearly 300 million Yuan.
(IV) Making great efforts to serve the construction of Tianjin North Shipping Core Area
We supported the holding of China (Dongjiang) shipping industry week and jointly hosted the maritime finance high-end legal forum with Tianjin Dongjiang Free Trade Port Administration Committee. More than 40 institutions including maritime court from Qingdao, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Nanjing and relevant administrative organs, scientific research institutes, industry associations, banks, financial leasing enterprises and legal service institutions jointly discussed the hot and difficult issues in the field of maritime finance law to play the role of service guarantee creatively. In 2021, the Court accurately applied the law and properly handled 29 cases involving new industries and formats such as financial leasing, parallel imported cars, cruise tourism industry and cold chain logistics, with the amount of the subject matter involved reaching 1.654 billion Yuan.
(V) Striving to promote the normal “crime crackdown”
The Court resolutely implemented the work requirements for normal crime crackdown and enhanced the enforcement and disposal intensity of “illegal money” and did a proper job for disposal of gangland-related property. In dealing with the enforcement of the property involving the leadership, organization and participation of 40 persons including Yan ** with gangdom nature, the Court overcame the problems of shortage of funds, less appraisal institutions, long assessment cycle, large difficulty of realization to expand the idea and made innovation and methods and achieve enforcement effect of the maximum disposal value, shortest disposal cycle, lowest maintenance cost and demonstrated the distinct attitude and firm determination of the people's court to completely eradicate the survival soil of the underworld and evil forces. The case was selected into the Top Ten Influential Cases of Tianjin Court in 2021.
(VI) Striving to promote judicial openness
We continued to carry out the openness of court trials and stuck to “live broadcasting is the principle, not live broadcasting is the exception”. The live broadcasting rate of court cases reached 86.72%. We strengthened the internet access of documents and the disclosure of procedures by making public 1142 judgment documents and case information throughout the year and the effective disclosure rate of trial procedures reached more than 99%. The Court Openness Day was held three times and two press conferences were held in the whole year. Deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, lawyers and marine related enterprises were invited to visit the Court for five times, expanding the depth and breadth of judicial openness. Traditional mainstream media and mainstream websites such as Xinhua News Agency, Legal Daily, People's Court Daily published more than 60 publicity and reports and “Tianjin Maritime Court” WeChat Official Account, official Kwai Account, official micro-blog and other new media released 2407 articles and 8 short videos so as to report work to people in an in-depth and timely manner.