On June 24, 2026, the SPC released a batch of typical cases of maritime adjudication in resolving international maritime dispute, comprising six cases covering crew labor contracts, pretrial maritime claim preservation, general average, recognition and enforcement of Hong Kong arbitral awards, pretrial property preservation, and maritime cargo carriage contracts. Case No. 6 marks for the first time that a Chinese court has explicitly affirmed, through a judgement, the mandatory application of Article 12 of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. In this case, a Singaporean shipping enterprise that refused to issue bills of lading without justification and returned cargo unilaterally on the grounds of another country’s unilateral sanctions. The Shanghai Maritime Court, by ruling that “unlawful extraterritorial unilateral sanctions shall not be invoked as a defense to evade contractual obligations”, ordered the overseas shipping enterprises to bear full liability and pay compensation of RMB 4.99 million in freight and interest. The   judicial decisions define clear legal boundaries for maritime arbitration cases in response to the abuse of long-arm jurisdiction and the imposition of unilateral sanctions by some countries.

(Source: Supreme People’s Court — www.court.gov.cn)