“I am a People’s Assessor of the People’s Republic of China. I swear: I shall be always loyal to the country, to the people and to the Constitution and law, and I shall participate in trial by law…” As the clear and solemn oath resonated at the launch ceremony of the 2020 training program for people’s assessors arranged by Haikou Maritime Court on the morning of October 21, the people’s assessors attending the training recaptured the spirit of the solemn words and demonstrated their commitment to faithfully fulfilling the duty of people’s assessor. The launch ceremony was presided over by Liu Shaobin, member of the Party Leadership Group and head of the Political Department. Vice President Jian Wancheng attended the ceremony and made a mobilization speech. Also presented at the occasion were 48 people’s assessors from 11 cities and counties across the province, as well as the heads of some divisions and courts police of the Court.

After taking the oath, people’s assessors watched the promo video of Haikou Maritime Court to have a better understanding of the recent works of the Court, so as to develop a sense of being involved in the major activities of the Court, including, in its commitment to taking the lead in the construction of the free trade port, actively exercising the judicial jurisdiction over the South China Sea, serving the national strategy and the construction of the free trade port, and advancing the reform on the “Three in One” scheme for maritime trial, as well as the successful online auction of M/T “Brightoil Gem” at a price of 403.3 million yuan, and the trial of the province’s first administrative and the first civil public interest litigation cases related to maritime environment protection.

Vice President Jian Wancheng, entrusted by the President Xu Yahui, made a mobilization speech on behalf of the Party Leadership Group. He pointed out that training program for people’s assessors was an essential requirement for improving assessors’ performance in jury work and ensuring that they were able to fully perform duties so as to promote the fairness of justice, as well as an effective measure to foster communications between people’s assessors and to promote the jury work of the Court.

Jian expected good outcomes from this training program in five aspects：

First, seeking a unified thinking and raising political awareness to strengthen a sense of accountability and a sense of mission of the jury work;

Second, keeping study to improve the capability and performance of the jury work;

Third, keeping a balance between the jury work and one’s regular duties to ensure due performance as a people’s assessor;

Fourth, fulfilling jury’s duties faithfully, respecting judicial etiquette, and maintaining the image of justice;

Fifth, observing the discipline during training and working hard on the program.

For the purpose of this program, Haikou Maritime Court has arranged varied courses in respect of criminal law, civil law and the free trade port, covering some important judicial interpretations as released and amended by the Supreme People’s Court concerning the application of law in the trial of crew-related disputes and private loan disputes, and the evidence rules in civil proceedings, in response to the implementation of the Civil Code to be enacted on January 1 of the coming year and the inclusion of marine criminal cases under the exclusive jurisdiction of maritime courts. The courses will be lectured by senior judges form the province’s high court, as well as experts and scholars from the academic institutions. And seminars will be held to secure the training outcomes.