Rule Of Law In China: Progress And Problems. Lin Li
and ordinances enriched China’s legal system and provided legal basis and rule-by-law guarantee for China to achieve its economic, political, and social development along a legal path in its early years. Some important basic laws were being drafted fast, such as criminal law, civil law, and civil procedure law. Criminal law had been revised 22 times until 1957, and all the drafts were presented to NPC deputies to solicit their opinions; the drafting of the civil law was nearly completed, and the opinions of the units concerned were sought for; efforts were made to begin the drafting of criminal procedure law, and the first draft was completed in June, 1957.
Establish the judicial system: At the first session of the First NPC, Organic Law of the People’s Court and Organic Law of the People’s Procuratorate were reformulated. According to the stipulations in Organic Law of the People’s Court, the organizational system of courts changed from three levels (the count-level court, provincial-level court, and the Supreme People’s Court) to four levels (grassroots court, intermediate court, provincial higher court, and the Supreme People’s Court). Military court, railway court, the court for water transportation, and other special people’s courts were set up as stipulated, and the system of four-level double trial was implemented. As China’s highest judicial organ, the Supreme People’s Court was responsible for supervising the judicial work by local people’s courts and special people’s courts at all levels. Trial committees were set up within people’s courts at all levels to summarize trail experience and discuss major or hard cases as well as other trial-related issues.
As stipulated by Organic Law of the People’s Procuratorate, the leadership structure of the procuratorial organ was changed from “double leadership” (the higher procuratorial bureaus and the people’s government commissions at the same level) to “vertical leadership” (the procuratorates and specialized procuratorates at local levels are under the leadership of the higher procuratorates, and shall all work under the unified leadership of the Supreme Procuratorate). Four levels of procuratorates from top to bottom were set up, in which procuratorial commissions were under the leadership of the chief procurator. As China’s legal supervision organs, procuratorial organs were responsible for supervising general laws, investigations, trials, prisons, etc.
Some basic principles and systems were set up for China’s judicial work, such as the system of division of labor with individual responsibility, mutual supervision and mutual restraint among public security authorities, prosecutors, and courts, the system of authorities independently executed by prosecutors and judicial authorities, the principle of equality before the law, the system of people’s assessors, the system of public trial and defense, the collegial panel system, the avoidance system, the two-tier trial system, the system of reviewing death penalty, the trial supervision system, etc. These systems remain important bases in China’s judicial system.
Efforts were made to strengthen the construction of public security force. In the early years of the People’s Republic of China, the public security force was transformed from armed forces. After the Constitution was put into effect in 1954, the public security force separated ordinary police from armed police and was mainly responsible for maintaining social order. In 1957, the NPC Standing Committee formulated the Regulations for People’s Police, which explicitly stipulated the nature, tasks, functions, and powers of people’s police, thus bringing the construction of people’s police on the right track.
The Reeducation-through-labor system was established. The government issued the Reeducation-through-labor Regulations and the Provisional Treatment Measures on Releasing Reeducation-through-labor Criminals who complete the Imprisonment Term and Arranging Jobs for them. The two regulations established China’s Reeducation-through-labor system and made specific stipulations on the organs implementing Reeducationthrough-labor system, corresponding guidelines, policies, and measures as well as job placement for released criminals. Besides, the State Council released the Decisions on Reeducation-through-labor Issues to stipulate the scope and reeducation methods of those to be housed, reviewed, and reeducated through labor.
Advance Supervision and Legal Work: According to the organic law of the State Council, and that of local NPCs and local people’s committees, the Ministry of Supervision was set up under the State Council, supervision organs were set up for people’s committees and commissioner’s offices in provinces, municipalities, and cities divided into districts, and commissioner’s offices or supervision organs dispatched supervision teams under the straight leadership of the delegation authority to counties in need and cities undivided into districts. In November 1955, the State Council issued Organization Rules for the Ministry of Supervision, which made specific stipulations on the supervision system and put national supervision work on a codified and institutionalized track.
In November 1954, the Second Session of the First NPC Standing Committee approved the establishment of the Bureau of Legislative Affairs of the State Council. The State Council issued the Organization Rules for the Bureau of Legislative Affairs of the State Council, which made specific provisions on the tasks, internal institutions, systems, review regulations, and meeting systems of the bureau.
The lawyer system and the notarization system of the People’s Republic of China were set up consecutively. Until June, 1957, there were 19 bar associations, 817 legal advisory offices, over 2,500 full-time lawyers, and over 300 part-time lawyers in China; until late 1957, 51 cities in China set up notarial offices, over 1,200 city and county courts accepted notarial issues, and over 290,000 notarial matters were handled by nearly 1,000 full-time notaries. China’s arbitration system was initially established, and the departments concerned formulated the Provisional Stipulations on Arbitration Procedures of the Foreign Trade Arbitration Commission under China Arbitration Commission for the Promotion of International Trade, which made specific provisions on arbitration scope, the generation of arbitrators, arbitration organizations, adjudication, implementation, etc.
Establish and develop politics and law education: Politics and law education originated from the training of officers. In November 1949, Chaoyang University was rebuilt into the first university that cultivated judicial professionals in the People’s Republic of China, i.e. China University of Political Science and Law; in 1950, Renmin University of China was founded, its Law School became the first of its kind to offer formal law education in the People’s Republic of China, and law education for undergraduates was thus launched. By 1957, the number of higher departments of political science and law in the country had grown to 10 and the number of students enrolled reached 8,245. During the 8 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, 13,090 students graduated from departments of political science and law, and 263 of them were postgraduates.
1.2.Development of the Socialist Legal System with Chinese Characteristics since the Reform and Opening-up
Since the reform and opening-up, the construction of a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has experienced four development periods.
1.2.1.Restoration and reconstruction of rule of law: From 1976 to the promulgation of the Constitution in December 1982. On December 13, 1978, Deng Xiaoping made an important speech titled “Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, and Unite as One to Look into the Future” at the Closing Ceremony of the Working Conference of the CPC Central Committee. In his speech, Deng Xiaoping stressed: “To ensure people’s democracy, we must strengthen our socialist legal system, which will enable democracy to be institutionalized and codified, and ensure that such a system and laws will not be changed whenever the leadership changes, or whenever the leaders change their views or shift the focus of their attention. The problem now is that our legal system is incomplete, with many laws yet to be enacted. So we should concentrate on the development of criminal law, civil law, procedural law, and other necessary laws, such as factory law, people’s commune law, forest law, grassland law, environmental protection law, labor law, foreign investment law, etc. These laws should be discussed and adopted through democratic procedures. Meanwhile, the procuratorial and judicial organs should be strengthened. All this will ensure that “there are laws to go by, that they are observed and strictly enforced, and that violators are brought to book”. He also pointed out, “There is a lot of legislative work to do, yet we don’t have enough trained people. Therefore, legal provisions must be less than perfect to start with, then be gradually improved