The new law has arrived! How to solve maritime disputes?

　　On September 12, 2025, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the newly revised "Arbitration Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the new "Arbitration Law"), officially establishing the temporary arbitration system. The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" outline of Shanghai also clearly proposes to "enhance the level of temporary arbitration services."

　　To better implement the relevant work requirements, on the eve of the official implementation of the new "Arbitration Law," a series of activities titled "Promoting the Implementation of the New 'Arbitration Law' and Supporting the Development of Temporary Arbitration" were held at the Shanghai Maritime Court on February 28. Gu Quan, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice, Cao Jie, Member of the Party Group and Vice President of the Shanghai High People's Court, and Wang Tong, Secretary of the Party Group and President of the Shanghai Maritime Court, attended and delivered speeches. More than 30 representatives from the Shanghai High People's Court, Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice, Shanghai Arbitration Association, Shanghai Shipping Insurance Association, and major domestic insurance companies participated.

　　Currently, the construction of the Shanghai International Shipping Center has entered a new stage of "accelerating the construction of a globally leading international shipping center," and Shanghai is increasingly becoming an important gateway for international arbitration to enter China and for Chinese arbitration to reach the world.

　　The level of support for arbitration by the court at the arbitration location is an important consideration for shipping market entities in various countries when choosing an arbitration location and is an important reflection of a law-based business environment. Shanghai courts have always adhered to the judicial philosophy of being "arbitration-friendly," continuously improving and perfecting judicial supporting measures for legally supervising and supporting arbitration, and incorporating the implementation of new arbitration law systems such as supporting temporary arbitration into the "Shanghai Court Law-Based Business Environment Construction Action Plan (2026)."

　　During the event, Hu Yongqing, Member of the Party Group and Vice President of the Shanghai Maritime Court, and Yu Weifeng, President of the Shanghai Arbitration Association, signed the "Collaborative Promotion of Maritime Litigation and Temporary Arbitration Connection Mechanism Implementation Measures (Trial)" on behalf of both parties. This fully utilizes the respective advantages of maritime litigation and temporary arbitration in dispute resolution, establishing a new collaborative model of "court guidance, association support, and party choice." With shipping insurance disputes as the focus of exploratory priority areas, measures such as arbitration intention guidance at the filing stage, arbitration clause confirmation at the trial stage, and arbitration method transformation at the mediation stage are implemented to expand the application scenarios of temporary arbitration. On the basis of fully respecting the parties' wishes, it deepens the organic connection between judiciary and arbitration, providing more diverse choices for substantively resolving maritime disputes and assisting in enhancing the level of "shipping insurance" and "maritime arbitration" at the Shanghai International Shipping Center.

　　With the official implementation of the new "Arbitration Law," resolving disputes through temporary arbitration will enter the legal "fast track." This event also released the "Guidelines for Filing Applications for 'Special Arbitration' Judicial Cases," which details the process and materials required for filing various types of judicial cases involving temporary arbitration, providing better maritime judicial services for the parties.

　　Shipping insurance and maritime arbitration are two key areas of the high-end shipping service industry. During the event, Xu Feng, President of the Shanghai Shipping Insurance Association, proposed the "Initiative to Support the Development of Maritime Temporary Arbitration and Optimize Shipping Insurance Claims Service Cooperation," advocating for the organic combination of shipping insurance and maritime arbitration, supporting the use of "shipping insurance disputes" as a pilot area for the connection mechanism between maritime litigation and temporary arbitration. It calls on member units to actively and accurately guide disputing parties to use the temporary arbitration mechanism, efficiently promote dispute resolution, and enhance customer service experience.

　　The official implementation of the new "Arbitration Law" will provide new institutional adherence for the innovative development of judicial support for arbitration, opening a new chapter for the high-quality development of the arbitration industry. Standing at a new starting point, all parties will adopt a more open perspective and more pragmatic measures to fully implement the requirements of the new "Arbitration Law," jointly forming the "Shanghai Experience" in the development of the maritime arbitration system, contributing more solid judicial guarantees for Shanghai's construction of a globally leading international shipping center and an Asia-Pacific arbitration center facing the world.