Shen Hongyu, Chief Judge of the Fourth Civil Division of the Supreme People’s Court, answered questions from reporters regarding the Judicial Interpretation on the Temporal Effect of the Maritime Law.

　　On April 28, 2026, the Supreme People's Court issued the "Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on the Temporal Effect of the Application of the Maritime Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisions"). These "Provisions" provide specific operational guidance for unifying maritime judicial adjudication standards, properly addressing the challenges in the application of the new and old Maritime Law, and ensuring the smooth implementation of the newly revised Maritime Law. The "Provisions" will be implemented simultaneously with the newly revised Maritime Law starting May 1, 2026. Shen Hongyu, the head of the Fourth Civil Division of the Supreme People's Court, answered reporters' questions regarding the issuance of the "Provisions."

　　Question: Could you introduce the background and drafting principles of this judicial interpretation?

　　Answer: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to building a maritime power. General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important statements on maritime strategy and accelerating the construction of a maritime power, pointing the way forward. The "15th Five-Year Plan" clearly proposes to "promote high-quality development of the marine economy and accelerate the construction of a maritime power" and "enhance maritime law enforcement and judicial capabilities." On October 28, 2025, the 18th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress voted to adopt the newly revised Maritime Law, which will take effect on May 1, 2026. The newly revised Maritime Law is based on China's status as both a major shipping and trading nation, emphasizing targeted and effective amendments, accurately addressing institutional demands arising from the development of maritime law practices, reasonably drawing on the latest achievements of international maritime conventions, and effectively balancing the rights and responsibilities of relevant industry entities. It is of great significance for promoting high-quality development in China's shipping and trade, strengthening marine environmental and ecological protection, advancing global ocean governance, and supporting the construction of a maritime power and high-level opening-up. The newly revised Maritime Law introduces significant changes in areas such as contracts for the carriage of goods by sea, ship mortgages, limitation of maritime liability, marine insurance, and statutes of limitations, and adds new systems like electronic transport records. The issues of transitioning between the old and new laws are complex and varied. To ensure the accurate implementation of the newly revised Maritime Law, clarify the issues of transitioning between the old and new laws, and unify adjudication standards, the Supreme People's Court has formulated these "Provisions." The drafting work adhered to the following principles: First, adhering to the correct political direction. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress and subsequent plenary sessions, fully implementing Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and following General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on foreign-related rule of law, maritime power, and shipping power construction, ensuring that the judicial interpretation aligns with the decisions and deployments of the Central Committee and serves the overall development of the nation's maritime strategy. Second, adhering to strict legal interpretation. The drafting work strictly adhered to the functional positioning of judicial interpretation, providing legal explanations on how to apply specific legal issues. Third, adhering to a problem-oriented approach. The "Provisions" focus on the needs of maritime judicial practice, making specific provisions on general rules of temporal effect and issues prone to disputes in judicial practice. Fourth, protecting reasonable expectations of parties. For completely new provisions in the newly revised Maritime Law, the "Provisions" emphasize the normative function of these provisions, clarify that they can be applied retroactively, while also protecting the reasonable expectations of parties, preventing retroactive application from deviating from parties' expectations, significantly reducing their rights, or increasing their obligations.

　　Question: What specific arrangements have been made in the "Provisions" to adhere to the principle of "laws do not have retroactive effect"?

　　Answer: "Laws do not have retroactive effect" is a basic principle explicitly stipulated in the Legislation Law and is a core guideline in drafting the "Provisions." Based on maritime adjudication practices, the "Provisions" make specific arrangements at three levels: First, they clarify the general rule of non-retroactivity, stipulating that maritime dispute cases arising from legal facts before the implementation of the newly revised Maritime Law (hereinafter referred to as the Maritime Law) should apply the laws and judicial interpretations in effect at the time, unless otherwise stipulated by laws or judicial interpretations; cases arising from legal facts after the implementation of the Maritime Law should apply the provisions of the Maritime Law. Second, they stipulate that if legal facts occurring before the implementation of the Maritime Law continue into its implementation, maritime dispute cases arising from such legal facts should apply the Maritime Law, unless otherwise stipulated by laws or judicial interpretations. Third, they strictly limit exceptions to retroactivity, granting limited retroactive effect to a few provisions only in extremely rare circumstances that meet the requirements of Article 104 of the Legislation Law, "to better protect the rights and interests of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations," ensuring the stability of legal application.

　　Question: How does the "Provisions" regulate the retroactive application of new provisions in the Maritime Law?

　　Answer: The "Provisions" differentiate between different types of new provisions and make tailored regulations, balancing the uniformity and flexibility of legal application. On one hand, for completely new provisions explicitly stipulated in the Maritime Law but not covered by previous laws or judicial interpretations, the "Provisions" specify in Article 2 that they can be applied retroactively to fill legislative gaps and utilize the normative function of the new provisions, while also clarifying exceptions. Specifically, if applying the new provisions would significantly reduce the legitimate rights of parties, increase their statutory obligations, or deviate from their reasonable expectations, retroactive application is not allowed. On the other hand, for detailed new provisions that refine existing principles in the old law, the "Provisions" specify in Article 3 that for maritime dispute cases arising from legal facts before the implementation of the Maritime Law, where previous laws or judicial interpretations only provided principle-based provisions and the Maritime Law offers specific provisions, the principle-based provisions of the previous laws or judicial interpretations should apply, but reasoning for judgments can be based on the specific provisions of the Maritime Law.

　　Question: How does the "Provisions" determine the legal application rules for contracts established before the implementation of the Maritime Law but performed continuously after its implementation?

　　Answer: The Maritime Law contains numerous contractual provisions, and this revision introduces significant changes to core contractual provisions such as contracts for the carriage of goods by sea and charter contracts. The legal application for cross-law contracts is a key and challenging issue in practice. Drawing on the experience of mature judicial interpretations, the "Provisions" adhere to the principle of non-retroactivity and determine the applicable law based on the timing of the performance behavior causing the dispute. Article 4 specifies that disputes arising from contract performance before the implementation of the Maritime Law should apply the laws and judicial interpretations in effect at the time; disputes arising from contract performance after the implementation of the Maritime Law should apply the relevant provisions of the Maritime Law on contract performance. It should be noted that this rule only applies to issues related to contract performance. The establishment and validity of contracts should, in principle, still apply the laws in effect at the time of contract formation.

　　Question: The "Provisions" make special arrangements for the legal application of ship mortgage transfers. What were the main considerations?

　　Answer: This revision of the Maritime Law introduces substantive changes to the rules on ship mortgage transfers, modifying the original mandatory provision that "when the mortgagee transfers all or part of the debt secured by the mortgaged ship to another party, the mortgage is transferred accordingly" to "when the debt secured by the ship mortgage is transferred, the mortgage is transferred accordingly, unless otherwise stipulated by law or agreed upon by the parties." This change further expands the scope for parties' autonomy, aligns with related systems in the Civil Code, and fully reflects the socialist core values of respecting parties' autonomy and good faith. Accordingly, Article 5 of the "Provisions" makes favorable retroactive arrangements for the above substantive changes, clarifying that before the implementation of the Maritime Law, if parties had separately agreed that the ship mortgage would not be transferred along with the secured debt, the relevant provisions of the Maritime Law could be uniformly applied. By reasonably setting retroactive application rules, the legislative intent and normative value of this system modification are fully realized, effectively safeguarding the reasonable expectations and legitimate rights of market entities.

　　Question: Electronic transport records are a newly added system in this revision of the Maritime Law. How does the "Provisions" regulate the application rules for issues related to electronic transport records?

　　Answer: The "Provisions" stipulate retroactive application for electronic transport records, which is a prominent highlight of this judicial interpretation. Represented by electronic bills of lading, electronic transport records have already emerged in shipping practices for many years, but there were no relevant legal provisions. This revision of the Maritime Law, referencing the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's "Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records" and the "United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea" (the Rotterdam Rules), adds Section 5 on electronic transport records to Chapter 4 on contracts for the carriage of goods by sea, filling the legislative gap. Retroactive application helps achieve the legislative goal of the Maritime Law to "promote maritime transport and economic trade development." These completely new provisions do not conflict with China's existing document systems, and retroactive application does not violate parties' reasonable expectations or disrupt the existing legal order. Therefore, Article 6 of the "Provisions" makes explicit stipulations.

　　It should be noted that the newly revised Maritime Law also adds Chapter 12 on liability for ship oil pollution damage. However, before the implementation of the Maritime Law, China already had the Marine Environmental Protection Law, the Ship Pollution Prevention Regulations, judicial interpretations on ship oil pollution, and conventions such as the Oil Pollution Convention and the Bunker Convention that China has joined. Therefore, this new chapter does not fall under the category of completely new provisions without prior legal stipulations and should apply Article 1 of the "Provisions." Hence, the "Provisions" do not make separate stipulations.

　　Question: The newly revised Maritime Law's modifications to the suspension and interruption of statutes of limitations are more favorable for creditors seeking judicial remedies. Why did the "Provisions" not handle these modifications with retroactive application?

　　Answer: This revision of the Maritime Law introduces significant changes to the rules on the suspension and interruption of statutes of limitations, such as changing "continuing calculation" after suspension to "expiration six months after the cause of suspension is eliminated" and expanding the scope of interruption causes to align with the Civil Code, which better protects creditors' legitimate rights. However, considering that the statute of limitations system directly relates to the exercise of parties' rights, applying the new rules uniformly might violate the reasonable expectations of the other party and significantly impact their interests. Therefore, the "Provisions" strictly adhere to the principle of "laws do not have retroactive effect," clarifying that for statutes of limitations periods not yet expired on the day the Maritime Law takes effect, the suspension of the statute of limitations should apply the laws and judicial interpretations in effect on the day the cause of suspension is eliminated; the interruption of the statute of limitations should apply the laws and judicial interpretations in effect on the day the cause of interruption occurs. This balances the interests of all parties and maintains the stability of the statute of limitations system.

　　Question: How does the "Provisions" determine the legal application for cases that were already finalized before the implementation of the Maritime Law but where parties apply for retrial?

　　Answer: This reflects the core principle of res judicata and has been the consistent stance of our court in drafting judicial interpretations on temporal effect. The "Provisions" clarify that for cases already finalized before the implementation of the Maritime Law, whether parties apply for retrial or the People's Court decides to retry under the trial supervision procedure, the laws and judicial interpretations in effect at the time should apply, not the revised Maritime Law. The main consideration is that effective judgments have res judicata, and their stability should be maintained. Applying the new law to finalized cases would undermine the authority of judgments and the stability of the legal order, and would not be conducive to protecting parties' expectations of their rights.