Beijing Convention on Judicial Sale of Ships signed

A signing ceremony for the Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships was held on Tuesday, the fourth day of the ongoing China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), in the Chinese capital.

Delegations from 34 countries and regions attended the ceremony, with 15 countries, including China, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia becoming the first signatories of the Convention.

The Convention was drafted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) after four years of research, and was adopted by the UN General Assembly in Dec 2022.

Liu Baocheng, dean of the Center for International Business Ethics of the University of International Business and Economics, offered insights into the signing of the Convention, believing the new rule can play a positive role in international commercial maritime trade and give a boost to the development of shipping industry around the globe, when speaking at an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) via video link.

"This helps to clarify a uniform regime to regulate the judicial sale so that the buyers can really have a clean title while without further disputes. And that can also help boost the shipping market, where sales can be more predictable and shifting finance can also be facilitated in that regard. So for this, China contributes a great deal because we also have a very strong team and also we have accumulated a number of best practices to address such sort of issues," said Liu.

China has dealt with a great number of maritime dispute cases, which helps itself accumulate the best practices in the field, and also promote the judicial progress of shipping industry, according to the expert.

"Chinese [Maritime] Law Association has been very professional on the main respect from the legal circle around the world and also the Chinese arbitration on maritime disputes. It's also very noticeable around the world. China is so much intervolving with the rest of the world through the shipping of the goods. So every year, we handle several hundreds of such sort of cases. And through the judicial practices, they have accumulated their observation and also best practices. And such the best practices they have done can really contribute to the legal circle in this particular field around the world," he said.

This is the first UN convention in the field of maritime commerce named after a Chinese city, which has highlighted the country's increasing status on trade investment and its growing soft power, said the expert.

"We could see that in the world, there are many conventions named after certain cities. Now a Beijing Convention is something that indicates China is participating in the lawmaking process for the entire world. And also China's importance in terms of trade investment around the globe is also reflected and matched by the soft power China is stepping up to reinforce," said Liu.

The Convention establishes a harmonized regime for giving international effect to judicial sales, while preserving domestic law governing the procedure of judicial sales and the circumstances in which judicial sales confer clean title.

By ensuring legal certainty as to the title that the purchaser acquires in the ship as it navigates internationally, the Convention is designed to maximize the price that the ship is able to attract in the market and the proceeds available for distribution among creditors, and to promote international trade.

Source: CCTV

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