On the afternoon of 23 April 2018, Haikou Maritime Court held a joint symposium with Sanya Suburb People’s Court and representatives of Sanya Municipal Committee of CPPCC to discuss maritime jurisdiction and the directions and goals of maritime justice. Presented were Jian Wancheng, vice president of Haikou Maritime Court, Chen Yinghong, head of Sanya Division, Pan Wenzhuang, president of Sanya Suburb People’s Court, and heads of the filing division and the four dispatched tribunals in Haitang, Jiyang, Tianya and Yazhou, as well as representatives of Sanya Municipal Committee of CPPCC.

Active and lively discussions among all participants took place in the symposium. Jian Wancheng, vice president of Haikou Maritime Court, pointed out that maritime justice played an important role in supporting national strategies such as the maritime power strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative, and that maritime jurisdiction had fully covered all of China’s territorial seas. Maritime justice would play a more significant role in promoting the building of pilot free trade zones and free trade ports. The maritime court and the local court fulfilled slightly different roles and trial functions and entertained different scopes of cases. However, there were also overlapping and grey areas between the two. This meeting was expected to facilitate communication and understanding between the two, to clarify scopes of cases entertained, and to enhance cooperation between the two in supporting economic and social growth with judicial services.

Chen Yinghong, head of Sanya Division, elaborated the characteristics of cases under the jurisdiction of maritime courts, types of main disputes, peculiarities of the maritime legal system, and the trend in entertaining cases. Afterwards, the participants had lively discussions about the identification of maritime cases, communication between maritime court and the suburb court, arrest of vessels and other issues. Representatives of Sanya Municipal Committee of CPPCC all recognized the benefit of the symposium in promoting the building of Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone.

At the meeting, the two courts took minutes which would be used to guide them in future initiatives. The minutes covered important practical issues on which the courts had reached consensus, such as the examination and identification of maritime cases and maritime administrative cases, how to correct and guide litigants in maritime cases after actions had been wrongly brought before Sanya Suburb People’s Court, and the practices when Sanya Suburb People’s Court enforced an effective judgment by entrusting the maritime court with arrest and auction of vessels.