International Conference on Marine Pollution Prevention & Legal Remedies was held on the 5th~7th July 2004 at Nanjing International Conference Center, which was hosted by Jiangsu MSA, Shanghai Maritime University, Maastrichts University and Catholic University of Leuven, and attended by about 150 persons mainly of MSA officials, academics and shipowners.

Four key persons delivered the opening speeches, who are Mr. Xu Guoyi, Vice Director of China MSA, Mr. Zhang Tongbin, Executive Director of Jiangsu MSA, Prof. Cai Cunqiang, Vice President of Shanghai Maritime University and Dr. Michael Faure of Maastrichts University of Netherlands. Mr. Liu Gongcheng, Executive Director of China MSA, and Prof. Yu Shicheng, President of Shanghai Maritime University addressed the closing ceremony.

More than 30 speakers made presentations during the conference, primarily and extensively discussing legal remedies of pollution prevention and compensation from both academic and practical perspectives. Particular emphasis was paid to civil and criminal liability and compensation issues arising from ship pollution in riparian and coastal water areas. As one of the practical remedies, domestic national fund and local fund were frequently mentioned over issues of the suggested scope of application, the admissible items and the priority of compensation and etc. Two papers of Shanghai MSA and Shenzhen MSA, to which CMS has made considerable assistance, have been complied in the Collection of Seminar Papers.