December 14th was the National Constitution Day of China. On this day, the Party branch of Sanya Tribunal of Haikou Maritime Court and the third Party branch of MSA signed a memorandum of understanding to start maritime judicial and administrative collaboration and promote the spirit of the Constitution during the practices of maritime judicature and maritime administration. Weng Jiancai (Secretary of the Party Committee of Sanya MSA), Zeng Fanshan (member of the Party committee), Cai Binhang (Secretary of Party Branch of Sanya Tribunal), and twenty more attendees from the two sides attended the activity.

Cai Binhang and Ye Xinbin (Secretary of the Third Party Branch of Sanya MSA) signed the Party Branch Collaboration Memorandum, by which the two branches agreed to hold “five activities” each year, including a Party Day activity, a seminar, a court hearing, a law enforcement campaign, and a Party lecture for each other. It was expected that by sharing resources and complementing advantages, a good mechanism of co-governance, resources sharing, and talent training would be created to achieve common development.

The two sides further discussed the legal issues emerging in maritime administration and the functions of primary Party organizations. The Court learnt that legal issues over the regulation of illegal ship operation and law enforcement against foreign vessels subject to administrative penalty had become great concerns to Sanya MSA . The two parties agreed that these issues would be addressed as a priority in the next stage. Sanya Tribunal also offered three suggestions on the collaboration from judicial perspective: First, to improve and implement the invited mediation mechanism by inviting maritime investigation officials to assist maritime courts in mediation; second, maritime judges should get involved in earlier time to resolve disputes during the investigation of maritime accident, and provide legal services for the resolution of disputes; third, to verify and grant enforcement force to mediation agreements concluded in the presence of MSA during the investigation of maritime accidents. The parties also exchanged opinions on innovative communication channels, arrangements of Party Day theme activities, poverty alleviation, and so forth.