Shanghai has strengthened the development of specialized courts to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of legal services as part of its move to become a global center for economy, finance, trade, shipping and technological innovation, authorities said on Monday.

Mao Ronghua, vice president of Shanghai People's High Court, said the Shanghai Financial Court established in August 2018, for instance, has issued measures for various fields, including the STAR board, to facilitate financial dispute resolutions and protect individual investors.

Mao said the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court has improved judicial transparency and international exchanges in the past decades. To date, more than 700 overseas experts have visited the court with the assistance of the Chinese Court International Exchanges Base (Shanghai) for Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights.

A professional, convenient and intelligent maritime trial mechanism has been applied at the Shanghai Maritime Court, Mao added. The court owns the first smart system that can deal with maritime cases in China as well as a foreign law identification platform.

The court has also accelerated exchanges between domestic and foreign law experts and cooperated with top universities like Tsinghua University to jointly build judicial practice bases and research centers.