Rule Of Law In China: Progress And Problems. Lin Li
putting on records and reviewing normative documents and strengthen our capacity in this respect. We need to bring all such documents within the purview of ours records and reviews”. Besides, according to the Resolution, December 4 has been made China’s Constitution Day, and a system of affirmations of allegiance is established, whereby all those who are elected or appointed to public office by people’s congresses or their standing committees make a public pledge of allegiance to the Constitution when they officially assume office.
Third, improving the legislative system. (1) Improving the procedures for making decisions on major issues in the legislative work of the Party. All instances where legislation involves major systemic or policyrelated adjustments must be referred to the CPC Central Committee for discussion and a decision. For constitutional revision, the Central Committee shall make proposals to the NPC, and the NPC shall carry out revision in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the Constitution. For major issues concerning the formulation and revision of laws, the Leading Party Group of the NPC Standing Committee shall report to the Central Committee. (2) Improving the systems and mechanisms through which those people’s congresses with legislative power lead legislative work, and ensuring that people’s congresses and their standing committees play the dominant role in legislative work. A system will be established whereby NPC’s special committees and the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee organize relevant departments to participate in the drafting of laws which are of a comprehensive or fundamental nature, and those that affect the overall picture. The proportion of full-time standing committee members within people’s congresses who have practical experience relating to the rule of law need to be increased. Besides, in accordance with the law, a sound system whereby specialists may act as legislative advisors to the special committees of people’s congresses and the legislative affairs commissions of the standing committee of people’s congressed need to be established. (3) Strengthening and improving the government legislative system to make progress in the administrative regulations, rules and regulations, as well as the public participation in the government legislative mechanism. Government legislative affairs agencies shall organize the drafting of major administrative laws and regulations. (4) Clearly defining the boundaries of legislative power and employing systems, mechanisms, and procedures to prevent the enactment of law for the protection of departmental or local interests. The legal interpretation work needs to be strengthened to promptly clarify the meaning of legal provisions and why they are applicable. The legislative power of local authorities need to be clearly defined and what they may legislate on needs to be delineated. Works need to be done to accord local legislative powers to all cities which are subdivided into districts.
Fourth, working hard to legislate more effectively and democratically. (1) The system of soliciting comments during the drafting of laws and regulations from the deputies to people’s congresses need to be improved. The systems for encouraging the general public to propose items to be legislated on and for them to debate about legislative items need to be improved. Channels and methods by which legislative bodies lead legislation while other sectors of society also participate in an orderly manner need to be improved. The possibility of entrusting third parties with the drafting of laws and regulations need to be explored. (2) The mechanisms by which legislatures communicate with the general public need to be improved. The channels through which citizens can, in an orderly way, participate in the legislative process need to be expanded. The mechanisms for soliciting comments from the public on drafts of laws and regulations, as well as for giving feedback about the use to which these comments have been put, need to be improved, and it’s of great necessity to achieve broad social consensus. (3) The procedures for voting on the drafts of laws need to be improved, and we need to allow important articles to be voted on separately.
Fifth, strengthening legislation in key areas. “We need to guarantee the rights of citizens in accordance with the law; quickly improve laws and institutions that ensure equal rights, equal opportunities, and fair rules for all; ensure that citizens’ personal rights, property rights, basic political rights, and other forms of rights are inviolable; ensure that citizens’ economic, cultural, and social rights are respected; and achieve an increasing level of the rule of law in the safeguarding of citizens’ rights. We need to strengthen awareness throughout the whole of society about the need to respect and safeguard human rights and improve the channels and methods by which remedy can be found for violations of citizens’ rights”.
Sixth, coordinating the country’s legislative work with the decisions on reform to make sure that all of the country’s major reforms have a legal basis, and that legislative work is carried out proactively to meet the needs of reform, as well as economic and social development. Decisions that prove to work well in practice should be promptly elevated to law. When it comes to reform measures for which conditions are not yet ripe or which first need to be tried and tested in practice, authorization must be secured first in accordance with legal procedures. Laws and regulations that are not suitable to the requirements of reform must be revised or rescinded without delay.
1.2.4.3. Part 3: Thoroughly advancing law-based government administration and accelerating the building of a rule-of-law government. This mainly includes: First, innovation of concepts and basic ideas—“The very life and authority of the law lies in its enforcement. Governments at all levels must work under the leadership of the Party and in line with the rule of law. They must make innovations in the system of law enforcement, refine law enforcement procedures, advance a coordinated approach to law enforcement, strictly demand accountability in law enforcement, and establish a system of law-based government administration that combines rights with responsibilities and that is authoritative and effective. They must move more quickly to become the rule-of-law governments which have well-conceived functions and statutorily-defined powers and responsibilities, strictly enforce the law, and are open and impartial, clean and efficient, and more credible and law-abiding”.
Second, fully carrying out government functions in accordance with the law. (1) “We need to improve legislation on administrative organization and procedures, and promote the codification of governmental institutions, functions, powers, procedures, and responsibilities into law… Administrative bodies must not assume power which is not prescribed by law, make decisions that reduce or encroach upon the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, legal persons, or other organizations, or increase their obligations when there is no legal basis for such decisions. We need to promote a system in which government powers are clearly delineated”. (2) “We need to work to ensure that the powers of each level of government and the way they are exercised are rooted more firmly in laws and procedures. We need to improve the legislation defining the powers of governments at different levels, especially power sharing between central government and local governments: we need to strengthen the central government’s functions of exercising macro-level regulation and establishing systems, and the powers necessary for it to enforce the law. We also need to strengthen the responsibility of governments at the provincial level for overall planning on ensuring access to basic public services within their jurisdictions is increasingly equitable; and strengthen municipal and county governments’ performance of their duties and functions”.
Third, improving law-based decision-making mechanisms. (1) A mechanism needs to be established for administrative agencies to review the legality of their major decisions, and we need to “ensure that those decisions that have not undergone or have not passed the legality review are not submitted for collective deliberation”. (2) “We need to actively implement the system of government legal advisors”, and “make sure these advisors play an active role in helping make major administrative decisions and promoting law-based government administration”. (3) “We need to establish a lifelong accountability system and a mechanism for retroactive investigation of liability for major decisions. For very bad decisions and for decisions that should, in accordance with the law, have been made promptly but were delayed, resulting in major losses or negative effects, top administrative officials and other leaders and individuals responsible will be held legally accountable”.
Fourth, deepening structural reform in administrative enforcement of law. (1) “We must carry out coordinated law enforcement, greatly reducing the number of categories of government law enforcement employees at the municipal and county levels. We need to focus on promoting coordinated enforcement of law in the areas of food and drug safety, industrial and commercial