China’s Response To Anti-suit Injunction In International Maritime Litigation

An injunction is an order issued by a national court to prohibit parties from proceeding or continuing identical or conflicting proceedings in another court.This system aims to reduce the litigation burden and adjudication conflicts of the parties at the international level by unilaterally coordinating the same or conflicting litigation or arbitration between different countries,and to a certain extent,reduce the phenomenon of parallel litigation.Maritime injunctions issued by foreign courts can be classified into two categories: most of them are issued out of respect for the effective arbitration agreement between the parties;In the rare maritime cases involving international parallel proceedings,the competent court issues to one party in order to maintain its own jurisdiction.In the face of an extraterritorial maritime injunction,Chinese parties often take tit-for-tat or passive responses.Common countermeasures in judicial practice include filing a lawsuit separately by ignoring the injunction,asking foreign courts to reject the application for injunction,and applying for refusing to assist in service.However,none of the above are appropriate and appropriate countermeasures.China has not established an injunction system including maritime injunction,the conduct preservation system in the Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as the Civil Litigation Law)and the maritime injunction system in the Special Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China on Maritime Proceedings(hereinafter referred to as the Sea Litigation Law).As well as the Supreme People’s Court’s ruling of “act preservation in the nature of injunction” made by Standard Essential Patent in the field of international intellectual property since 2020 in disputes over licensing rate competition,its legal characteristics and effects are similar to the injunction system.However,these three systems are also fundamentally different from the maritime injunction system.The act preservation system does not have an international perspective compared with the injunction;The Chinese court’s reasoning on the issuance and application conditions of maritime injunction is vague and needs to be perfected.The ruling of “act preservation of the nature of injunction”can also provide ideas and inspiration for the establishment of China’s injunction system in the maritime field.The relationship between China’s above existing system and China’s future maritime injunction system needs to be clarified.It is theoretically necessary and practical feasible for China to add the injunction system by amending the Law on Maritime Litigation.In terms of the future system conception,it can learn from the experience of countries in Anglo-American law system,integrate local legal thoughts and legal cultivation to carry out legal transplantion,propose the core elements of constructing China’s maritime injunction system,so as to establish a maritime injunction system conforming to China’s national conditions,better regulate the phenomenon of parties’ disorderly litigation,and finally realize the integration with international maritime injunction.Provide advantageous protection for our shipping interests.