Military courts are set up at three levels: grassroots; Great Military Region, Services and Arms; and the PLA Court.

The PLA Court is the supreme military court whose responsibilities include:

• Try first-hearing cases involving crimes committed by individuals above the division commander level.
• Try foreign-related criminal cases.
• Try second-hearing cases, verification and review of cases involving death penalty.

Great Military Region and Services and Arms Courts are intermediate courts set up in great military regions, the navy, the air force, the Second Artillery Army and the PLA General Headquarters. Their responsibilities include:

• Try first-hearing cases involving crimes committed by individuals at the deputy division commander and regiment level.
• Try cases that may involve death penalty and cases under their jurisdiction as authorized or designated by superior military courts.
• Try cases appealing or protesting rulings or verdicts passed by lower courts.

Grassroots military courts consist of tribunals set up in armies, provincial military regions, naval fleets, and air forces within Great Military Regions and in army units deployed in Beijing directly under the headquarters. Their responsibilities include:

• Try cases involving crimes committed by individuals under the battalion commander level and first-hearing cases that may involve a penalty up to life imprisonment.
• Try first-hearing cases under its jurisdiction as authorized or designated by superior military courts.

Maritime courts are special courts set up to try first-hearing maritime or sea-shipping cases for the purpose of exercising judicial jurisdiction over maritime affairs. In May 1989, the Supreme People's Court made a Decision on the Scope of Cases to Be Handled by Maritime Courts. That decision specified that maritime courts handle maritime or commercial cases between Chinese legal persons/citizens, between Chinese legal persons/citizens and foreign legal persons/citizens, and between foreign legal persons/citizens. These cases fall into 14 subsets in five categories:

• Ten categories of cases involving maritime torts and disputes, including: damage claim cases involving collision of vessels; damage claim cases involving vessels colliding into buildings and facilities on the sea, sea-linked waters and ports; claim cases involving vessels discharging or leaking hazardous materials or waste water causing water pollution or damaging other vessels or cargo; claim cases involving casualties in the course of sea-borne shipping or operations on the sea, sea-linked waters and ports.

• Fourteen categories of commercial cases, including: cases involving shipping contract disputes; contract dispute cases involving passengers and baggage; cases involving seaman labor contract disputes; cases involving maritime rescue and salvage contract disputes; cases involving maritime insurance contract disputes.

• Eleven other categories of maritime cases, including: cases involving major liabilities in shipping and maritime operations; cases involving port operation disputes; cases involving general average disputes; cases involving offshore development and exploitation; cases involving the ownership, proprietorship, mortgage or preferred maritime right of claim of vessels; administrative cases involving maritime or inland river authorities; and cases involving maritime fraud.