The Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) officially released the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Cases involving Disputes over Compensation for Damage to Marine Natural Resources and Ecological Environment (the “Provisions”) on January 5th, 2018. The Provisions will come into effect on January 15 2018.

China pays more attention to the protection of environment in recent years, and has taken steps to establish the comprehensive legal regime on protection of ecological environment. According to the spokesman of SPC at time of publishing the Provisions, during the trial of cases of compensation for damage to marine sources and ecological environment in the local courts, SPC took notice that the judicial criteria was not unified. Thus, the SPC commenced drafting the Provisions, and, after soliciting opinions extensively from the Law Committee and Environment Protection Committee from NPC, and Legal Affairs Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Agriculture, MOT, the State Oceanic Administration and several Maritime Courts  and finally published the Provisions.

The Provisions are composed of 13 articles, which cover the scope of application, jurisdiction, proper plaintiff, announcement and notice, Special procedure for lawsuit, liability methods, scope of compensation for damage, loss assessment, amount and execution of compensation, mediation, the priority of this Provisions among other related laws and regulations, and the effective time of this Provisions.

The Provisions will be the basic rule for the related government bodies, including State Oceanic Administration, the MSA, and the State Fishery Administrative Department, to bring up lawsuit against infringers who had caused great damage to the marine environment, aquatic resources or protective areas of the sea.

It is noted that the Provisions cover the pollution damage to marine environment not only caused by ships, but also by other sources, such as pollution from river or land. The pollution damage is not limited to oil pollution, but also HNS pollution. As far as pollution damage caused by ships is concerned, Article 12 of the Provisions specifies that the relevant law, regulations or judicial interpretations shall apply in priority.