A good legal environment is crucial to the building of a law-based business environment. In recent years, Haikou Maritime Court has conducted maritime trial actively and handled quite a few cruise and yacht-related cases. It also explores diverse approaches to resolve disputes by collaborating with sea-related administrative organs, creating the “fairway of justice”, a maritime legal service channel dedicated to the cruise and yacht industry of the province. That is only one of the many endeavors of Haikou Maritime Court to serve the construction of Hainan free trade zone (port) with high-quality judicial services.

On December 24, the front-page headline of Legal Daily reported the judicial measures taken by Haikou Maritime Court to boost the development of the cruise and yacht industry of Hainan province.

(See below for the front-page and full text of the report.)

Full text:

“Fairway of Justice”

Haikou Maritime Court introduces innovative judicial measures to boost the development of the cruise and yacht industry

Benefiting from the construction of Hainan pilot free trade zone and the free trade port of Chinese characteristics, Hainan has grabbed the golden opportunity to build itself into an international consumption center. The cruise and yacht industry, with its distinctive Hainan characteristics, has become a new favorite to tourists. However, the emerging industry is restricted by quite a few institutional barriers, and maritime disputes and legal issues over cruises and yachts are increasing day by day.

In recent years, Haikou Maritime Court has conducted maritime trial actively and handled quite a few cruise and yacht-related cases. It also explores diverse approaches to resolve disputes by collaborating with sea-related administrative organs, creating the “fairway of justice”, a maritime legal service channel dedicated to the cruise and yacht industry of the province. That is only one of the many endeavors of Haikou Maritime Court to serve the construction of Hainan free trade zone (port) with high-quality judicial services.

“A good legal environment is crucial to the building of a law-based business environment”, said Xu Yahui, president of Haikou Maritime Court and Party group secretary of the court, in an interview with the Legal Daily on December 11. Development of the cruise and yacht industry is an integral part of the building of the international consumption center, and also a good opportunity to upgrade Hainan’s tourism industry. Under the new circumstances, Haikou Maritime Court will get involved in the cruise and yacht industry by providing legal services, and address the new situations and problems during case hearing. The Court aims at raising the legal awareness of the cruise and yacht operators and consumers to create a law-based and well-regulated environment for the cruise and yacht industry and contribute to the construction of Hainan free trade zone (port).

“Mediation plus Adjudication” helps resolve cruise and yacht-related disputes

In July 2018, a Sanya yacht club initiated a lawsuit before Haikou Maritime Court, claiming that its members did not pay membership fees and berth charges. The lawsuit gave rise to 40 cases, with a total value of more than 5 million yuan. The overdue payments had been delayed for years, causing great trouble to the club and also bringing negative impact on the business environment of the yacht industry of Sanya.

The cases were faced with great difficulties since the defendants were quite scattered and many of them were out of contact. A sophisticated team was formed by Haikou Maritime Court to resolve dispute by means of mediation and adjudication where it was applicable. The successful case handling protected the legitimate rights and interests of the observant party, and also secured the healthy development of the cruise and yacht industry.

It was reported that during 2016 to December 2019, Haikou Maritime Court accepted 82 cruise and yacht-related cases, with a value of nearly 100 million yuan. Among them, there were 73 cases accepted since 2018, showing a drastic rise in the number of cases.

“The types of cruise and yacht-related cases are diversified in recent years. Service contract dispute and dispute over the right to use sea areas have become the majority type of disputes related to cruises and yachts, which used to be dominant by the conventional disputes such as ship purchase contract dispute and ship building contract dispute,” said Cai Binhang, head of the Sanya tribunal of Haikou Maritime Court. It was a result of the rapid development of the cruise and yacht industry following the construction of Hainan free trade zone (port), which also reasserted the important role of maritime judicature in safeguarding the development of the cruise and yacht industry of the province.

In response to the development of the cruise and yacht industry, Haikou Maritime Court has resolved to handle maritime cases related to the emerging tourist consumption markets such as cruise tourism, yacht tourism, and island tourism according to law, with a view to regulating the activities of marine travel services and the use of sea areas. It also timely reviews and publishes typical cases to guide the development of the industry.

Collaboration platforms enable better guarantee

On June 25, Haikou Maritime Court held a forum in Sanya. The forum, under the theme “Development of the cruise and yacht industry in Hainan FTZ (Port) and maritime judicial services”, attracted more than 20 entities of the judiciary, administrative organs, academies, and enterprises, including the High People’s Court of Hainan Province, Hainan University, Hainan Cruise and Yacht Association, and Visun Royal Yacht Club.

On the forum, Haikou Maritime Court proposed specific suggestions in a special report in response to the problems in the cruise and yacht industry emerging during the construction of Hainan free trade zone (port), the approaches to address such problems, and maritime judicial needs, aiming at guiding the healthy development of the cruise and yacht industry of Hainan in a law-based environment.

“We have developed a collaboration mechanism to boost the development of the cruise and yacht industry by promoting the construction of a collaboration platform that connects maritime judiciary with administrative law-enforcement departments, industry associations, and enterprises,” said Xu Yahui. The upgraded forum will involve wide participation from the relevant authorities and enterprises. Based on full understanding of the situations and the development direction of the industry, the Court will set certain topics for discussion at the forum and work out innovative measures to address problems popping up during the development of the industry, ensuring that the industry secures a law-based, orderly, rapid, and healthy growth.

Maritime judicial services tailor to different needs

Haikou Maritime Court has formulated the Several Opinions on the Provision of Maritime Judicial Guarantee to Boost the Development of Cruise and Yacht Industry of Hainan Province. Combined with other new policies and measures of the province on the administration of the use of cruises and yachts, the Court has made arrangements in the procedures, manners, and timetables for the trial of the new types of cases over cruise travel disputes and disputes over temporal use of sea areas by yachts employed in Hainan-Hong Kong-Macau independent tours and those coming from foreign countries.

The Court has strengthened maritime judicial guidance to the cruise and yacht industry by providing tailored maritime judicial services to suit different needs. It will offer different maritime judicial guidance to the competent authorities, industry associations, merchants, and consumers to regulate and promote the development of the industry. The Court also timely reviews the judicial practices in the handling of cruise and yacht-related disputes, and releases legal risk tips and guiding opinions from time to time to provide risk control and dispute resolution guidance to different parties.

Upon the implementation of the new policies and measures on administration of the use of cruises and yachts, for instance, the temporal use of sea areas by yachts employed in Hainan-Hong Kong-Macau independent tours and those coming from foreign countries, and administration of the leasing of yachts, small claims disputes over the service, survey, repair and maintenance, and administrative permits and penalties in relation to cruises and yachts will see drastic increase. To address the new situation, Haikou Maritime Court has made arrangements in terms of procedures, manners, and timetables for the trial of such cases and prepared a series of written judgment templates to facilitate speedy trial, by which it is expected to promote the efficiency of trial and meet the demands of litigants for maritime judicial services.

In September, Haikou Maritime Court concluded a cooperation framework agreement with Sanya Fenghuang Notary Institute, inviting notary public to assist in the handling of cruise and yacht-related disputes. The agreement established a judicial ancillary support service center to cooperate in mediation, service of process, preservation, collection of evidence, and enforcement to better resolve disputes in relation to cruises and yachts, and explore new collaboration approaches and methods between notary public and the judiciary. The Court continues to explore diverse dispute resolution mechanism for resolution of cruise and yacht-related disputes with participation of the judiciary, administrative organs, and public organizations, making new advances for a rapid development of the cruise and yacht industry in a law-based fairway.

Offshore circuit court resolves disputes on spot

When visiting Visun Royal Yacht Club and Sanya Serenity Marina, you will not miss the billboards of Sanya tribunal of Haikou Maritime Court that introduce the court and provide litigation guidance.

“We have set up two circuit trial offices to deal with marine travel disputes in the major cruise bays in Sanya”, said Cai Binhang. The Court also vows to set up “Circuit Trial Office for Cruise-related Disputes” at cruise home ports in Hainan and “Circuit Trial Office for Yacht-related Disputes” at the yacht terminals in popular destinations of Hainan-Hong Kong-Macau independent tours. These circuit offices accept and hear cases on spot and make speedy judgments to resolve disputes efficiently.

Apart from circuit trial offices, Haikou Maritime Court also advances the building of circuit courts for marine travel cases by setting the first “Marine Travel Circuit Court” on cruise “Chang Le Princess” operating between Sanya and Xisha Yongle Islands. Maritime judges are serving onboard to accept and mediate disputes occurring during the voyages to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties concerned. The judges will also hear and respond to the maritime judicial needs of cruise operators and passengers, carry out legal publicity activities, and provide legal consultancy services.

“Sanya tribunal will timely review the practices of circuit trials on marine travel disputes and expand the coverage of circuit courts as appropriate to more Chinese and foreign cruises which base their home port in Sanya. We are working hard to expand our maritime jurisdiction in the South China Sea and provide maritime judicial guarantee to promote the development of the cruise industry of Hainan province”, added Cai.