On the morning of October 26th, the report of the Supreme People's Court on the maritime trial work of the people's courts was submitted for review at the 18th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress. Zhang Jun, President of the Supreme People's Court, pointed out in his report that maritime justice is an important part of the development of the country's maritime industry and an important guarantee for accelerating the construction of a maritime power. The people's courts have implemented the opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on strengthening judicial work in the new era, tried various maritime cases fairly in accordance with the law, fully played the role of maritime judicial functions, and provided strong judicial services and guarantees for building a maritime power and high-level opening-up to the outside world. The report on historic achievements in maritime trials points out that according to the Decision on Establishing Maritime Courts in Coastal Port Cities passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in November 1984, China established the first batch of maritime courts. For over 40 years, especially in the new era, China's maritime adjudication system has grown from nothing to something, from weak to strong, achieving all-round new development and historic new achievements. China has become the country with the most complete maritime adjudication system, the largest number of cases, and the most diverse types of cases in the world. The report provides specific introductions from several aspects. On the one hand, the specialized trial system is becoming increasingly mature. We have successively established 11 maritime courts with cross administrative jurisdiction and 42 dispatched courts, forming a maritime trial system of "three levels of courts, two trials, and final appeal" including maritime courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme People's Court. Our jurisdiction covers all sea areas, navigable waters, and ports in China. On the other hand, the number of cases has significantly increased and the types are constantly expanding. The annual number of cases received has increased from 18 in 1984 to 34400 in 2024. As of September 2025, a total of 638000 cases have been received, with a target amount exceeding 4.5 trillion yuan. The scope of cases accepted has increased from 18 to 108, expanding from mainly handling disputes related to maritime trade and shipping to emerging fields such as marine development and utilization, marine environmental protection, port and dock construction, and marine characteristic culture and tourism. In addition, the system of legal application rules is becoming increasingly perfect. In cooperation with the legislative body to revise the Maritime Law, the Special Procedure Law for Maritime Litigation, etc., the maritime legal system with Chinese characteristics is constantly improving. A total of 38 maritime judicial interpretations and normative documents, 16 guiding cases, and 122 typical cases have been issued, and 140 maritime reference cases have been included in the People's Court case database, effectively ensuring the unified and correct application of the law. The report on strengthening the protection barrier of marine ecological environment points out that the maritime trials of the people's courts shoulder important responsibilities and missions in serving and safeguarding the development of the national marine industry. They always focus on safeguarding national marine rights and interests, serving the development of the marine economy, protecting the marine ecological environment, participating in global marine governance, fulfilling their duties in accordance with the law, deepening reform and innovation, and striving to make positive contributions to accelerating the construction of a maritime power. The people's courts shall fulfill their judicial protection functions for marine natural resources and ecological environment in accordance with the law, and build a solid barrier for marine ecological environment protection. The report specifically introduces the support for public interest litigation in marine ecological environment protection. In conjunction with the Supreme People's Procuratorate, a judicial interpretation has been issued to promote effective connection between marine environmental supervision departments and procuratorial organs in filing public interest litigation. Relevant regulations have been absorbed into the newly revised Marine Environmental Protection Law. Since 2022, maritime courts have tried 179 public interest litigation cases related to marine ecological environment. In terms of improving the cooperation mechanism for marine ecological environment protection, we will strengthen coordination and cooperation with the procuratorial, maritime police, and administrative departments, establish and improve mechanisms for cooperation, consultation, and information sharing, and promote the construction of a marine ecological environment protection cooperation system that integrates land and sea, departmental coordination, regional linkage, and social governance. The report on improving and perfecting the system of maritime legal rules also points out the new situation and problems faced by the current maritime trial work, including: there is still a gap in the construction of preferred international maritime dispute resolution sites, the guarantee of maritime trial legal system needs to be improved and perfected, there are shortcomings in the maritime trial system and mechanism, the coordination of maritime law enforcement and judicial performance still needs to be strengthened, and there is a relative shortage of composite high-quality maritime trial talents. In response to these issues, the report proposes measures and suggestions to promote the high-quality development of maritime adjudication work. Specifically, it includes: adhering to the Party's absolute leadership over judicial work, based on the maritime adjudication function, better safeguarding national maritime rights and interests, serving the development of the marine economy, protecting the marine ecological environment, and participating in global ocean governance; Accelerate the construction of preferred locations for international maritime dispute resolution, improve the judicial trial system in foreign-related civil legal relationships, such as the parties' legally agreed jurisdiction and the choice to apply extraterritorial laws, and continuously enhance the attractiveness of China's maritime dispute resolution mechanism; Improve the maritime trial system and mechanism, establish a specialized jurisdiction system for maritime courts, strengthen the judicial coordination mechanism for maritime law enforcement, and focus on solving practical difficulties in the construction of dispatched courts; Cooperate to improve and perfect the legal system related to maritime affairs, fully cooperate with the legislative body in formulating maritime laws, actively assist in the revision of the Special Procedure Law for Maritime Litigation and the Maritime Law, and do a good job in formulating supporting judicial interpretations; Forge a high-quality and specialized maritime adjudication team, improve the mechanism for introducing, selecting, using, and managing maritime adjudication talents, and optimize the construction of the maritime adjudication talent pool. (New Society)