In accordance with the requirement of Chairman Li Zhanshu to “speed up the construction of a legal and regulatory system adapted to the modern comprehensive transportation system”, the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People’s Congress invited experts from nine societies, associations and universities including China Law Society, CIN, China Air Transport Association and the Law School of Beijing Jiaotong University on the afternoon of 31 August to discuss the legislation and amendment of transportation law. The seminar was hosted by Wu Ritu, Deputy Chairman of the Financial and Economic Committee, and Xu Shaoshi, Chairman of the Committee, Xiong Qunli and Liu Xinhua, Deputy Chairman of the Committee and some representatives of the Committee of the National People’s Congress and representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Transport attended the meeting. Experts expressed their suggestions on the theme.
Zhang Baochen, Executive Vice President, attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of CIN on the current situation of China’s transportation legal system, the basic ideas and specific proposals for improving the system. He pointed out that although China’s traffic laws, regulations and rules had played an important role in ensuring the orderly development of China’s transportation and achieving legal governance, the system was still not sound. Some early formulated laws didn’t adapt to the new situation, and there was no comprehensive transportation-oriented law. A unified legal system is lacking to solve the common problems between different modes of transportation, which doesn’t suit the needs to build a strong country in transportation.
Zhang Baochen suggested that it would be committed to the idea of “enacting The Comprehensive Transportation Law, filling the vacancy for law and amending the existed laws that were not appropriate”.
As for the legislation and amendment on shipping, Zhang Baochen put forward two proposals. Firstly, we should formulate The Shipping Law in conjunction with The Ships Law. Secondly, we should legislate The Inland Waterway Shipping Law. Nowadays, maritime legislation is stronger than river legislation, which does not adapt to the demand of strengthening the role of inland waterway shipping under the new development paradigm, so it is necessary to make The Inland Waterway Shipping Law as the leading law. Thirdly, we should enact The Crew Law. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “a strong economic country must be a strong one in navigation and shipping”. The development of the shipping industry is inseparable from strong shipping fleets and stable and high-quality crew teams. The Crew is the core element of a strong shipping country and an important force in safeguarding the security of national defence, resource and energy in China. These are the reason why we should formulate The Crew Law.
In accordance with the deployment of the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People’s Congress, CIN had submitted written materials compiled with the suggestions of the Maritime Law Professional Committee and experts such as Chubei Ping, Chen Peng, Hu Zhengliang, Wu Zhaolin and Si Yutou.