Guidelines issued to strengthen rule of law in GBA hub

China's top court issued a guideline on Monday to give better legal support to resolve cases in Nansha, Guangdong province, involving technological innovation, intellectual property protection and international commercial disputes.

The 21-article guideline on helping Nansha improve the quality of legal services to advance the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was made public by the Supreme People's Court.

The court said that it formulated the guideline as Nansha is an important hub connecting the Pearl River Estuary city cluster with the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

The guideline states that legal services should be strengthened to establish major science and technology innovation platforms, and optimize judicial protection in fields such as electrical engineering, computer science, marine science and artificial intelligence.

It requires strong IP protection of technological innovation, and calls for judges to attach importance to dealing with IP disputes involving litigants from Hong Kong and Macao SARs and foreign countries.

In addition, it encourages Nansha to build a system to handle international commercial cases in a fair, efficient, easy and low-cost manner, with greater efforts to solve shipping-related disputes, such as those relating to logistics, finance and ship management.

Furthermore, it allows legal procedures involving Hong Kong and Macao in Nansha to be simplified, giving people from home and abroad easier access to litigation.