abstract：Although it was originally agreed in the contract that the English law shall be the govern law and all disputes shall be subject to arbitration in London, with the raging COVID-19 obstructing the international travel, the parties worried that the arbitrat
Keywords：Shipbuilding,Dispute,contract
Recently, in spite of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, NMC efficiently resolved a dispute between a Norwegian shipowner and a Chinese shipyard over a shipbuilding contract of 3 heavy semi-submersible deck barges. The contract price is more than $50 million.
In this case, the shipowner (Plaintiff) from Norway and the Chinese shipyard (Defendant) in Nanjing entered into a shipbuilding contract before 2008 for building 3 heavy semi-submersible deck barges. However, the unexpected Financial Crisis interrupted the performance of the contract. For terminating the contract and refunding the contract price, negotiations between the parties had been carried on for years. Although it was originally agreed in the contract that the English law shall be the govern law and all disputes shall be subject to arbitration in London, with the raging COVID-19 obstructing the international travel, the parties worried that the arbitration would be time-consuming, high costed and difficult in execution. Hence, both parties changed the dispute resolution by consensus and submitted the case to NMC which was newly established in December,2019.
During the process of case filing, as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the process of notarization and authentication, the Chinese attorney representing the Norwegian shipowner could not acquire the power of attorney and present its notarial and certified documents in time. Considering the special period of the COVID-19 pandemic, NMC accepted the case, on the premise of notifying the plaintiff the legal consequences of not submitting the documents of notarization and certification within the last time limit. As the case was accepted, the judge immediately contacted the parties, and grasped their intention of negotiation. Having a proper understanding on the outline of the case, and with the consideration of the parties’ inconvenience on travelling during the epidemic, the judge did a mass of conciliation work by phone and Wechat, successfully minimized the divarication. Both parties finally reached an agreement and the attorney of the plaintiff also submitted the notarial and certified documents as scheduled. Over the network, the judge sent the draft of agreement to the parties and adjusted the agreement on their opinions. The agreement was confirmed and signed by the parties smoothly. With the active coordination of NMC, the international shipbuilding contract dispute, which had lasted for more than 5 years, was finally resolved promptly within a month.
Under the pandemic situation, NMC spares no effort to offer efficient judicial service to the parties from all around the world. Although many international shipbuilding disputes are still subject to arbitration in London nowadays, in this case, however, the parties chose to change the dispute resolution and agreed the jurisdiction of NMC. It indicates NMC has been growing and gaining recognition among the maritime community both locally and regionally.
