Having laws to go by is the premise of establishing our country under the rule of law. Over the sixty years since People's Republic of China was founded, China's legal construction has made notable achievements.
Startups of socialist legal system. At the dawn of the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949, the First Plenary Session of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference abolished old suppressive laws and passed Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference as the temporary constitution. On May 1, 1950, China promulgated the Marriage Law, which was the first law of New China. In 1954, China's first socialist constitution was promulgated. Then in the following two or three years, nearly 1,000 laws, decrees and regulations were promulgated. Meanwhile, basic laws including Criminal Law, Civil Law, Civil Procedure Law and Criminal Suit Law quickly began to be drafted.
Restoring of legal system. During the Cultural Revolution, China's legal system was severely destroyed. Then in 1978 after the practices of the Cultural Revolution were revised, the CPC (Communist Party of China) decided to strengthen construction of legal system to safeguard democracy and promote the institutionalization and legalization of democracy, with the aim that there are laws to go by, the laws are observed and strictly enforced, and law-breakers are prosecuted. Thus China's legal construction embraced a golden time of development. After that, a series of laws including the current Constitution, Criminal Law, Criminal Suit Law, General Principles of the Civil Law, Civil Procedure Law, and Administrative Procedure Law were enacted. During that period, China altogether enacted and amended 94 laws and 598 administrative regulations, basically ended the situation that people have no laws to abide by in many areas.
A socialist legal system with Chinese features was preliminarily formed. The Report of the 15th National Congress of the CPC in 1997 and Amendment to the Constitution in 1999 formally defined "building socialist country ruling by law" as one major policy. Centering on the main aspects of socialist market economy, China began to construct the framework of socialist market economy legal system. Company Law, Contract Law, Law of the People's Republic of China on the People's Bank of China, Labor Law, Foreign Trade Law were enacted one after another. During this period, China altogether enacted and amended 190 laws and 353 administrative regulations, coupled with the completion of the legal departments of the socialist legal system with Chinese features.
A socialist legal system with Chinese features was basically formed. According to the basic principles of "rule by law", "scientific governance" and "democratic governance" defined by the CPC, China further promoted legal construction. In 2004, China amended the Constitution and promulgated the Amendments to the Constitution, adding "citizens' legal private property should not be violated" and "the state should respect and safeguard human rights" into it. During this period, China enacted and amended up to 89 laws including Supervision Law, Anti-Secession Law, Administrative License Law, Property law, and 180 administrative regulations including Decree of the State Council of the People's Republic of China No. 431 Regulations on Letters and Visits and the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Disclosure of Government Information.
On March 8, 2008, Chairman of the National People's Congress Wu Bangguo declared that a socialist legal system with Chinese features has been basically formed, with Constitution as the core and laws as the stem. China had established seven legal departments and a framework of laws and regulations of three levels. So far, all walks of life, including economy, politics, culture and social life, have laws to go by.
At present, China's legislature is busy with two tasks: completing major laws in Chinese legal system and clearing off the existing laws, so as to establish a perfect socialist legal system with Chinese features.
Administration by Law
Speaking of administration by law, the "auditing storm" in recent years still dwells in people's memory.
"Auditing used to be regarded as a way of investigating and eliminating abuses, in fact, modern national auditing is a means of promoting democracy and rule by law," said Liu Jiayi, Auditor General of National Audit Office.
Over the more than twenty years since National Audit Office was founded in September 1983, it has audited and audit surveyed more than 530 organizations all over the country, directly leading to an increase of 550 billion RMB in the state revenue. Since 1999, audit institutions of all levels have audited more than 240,000 government officials and more than 20,000 leaders of state-owned and state-controlled enterprises.
Rule by law should cover the government, the society and the whole nation. After promulgating the Decision of the State Council on Promoting Law-based Administration in an All-round Way in 1999, the Chinese government issued the Outline for the Implementation of Promoting Law-based Administration in an All-round Way in 2004, specifying the goal of building a government under the rule of law in about 10 years.
Director of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council Cao Kangtai said, from 1979 to June 30 the State Council issued 1132 administrative regulations and received 26,202 regulations sent from its own subdivisions and local governments with legislative power to put on record.
With the overall unfolding of administration by law, Chinese government has shifted its concept to "legislation after the condition is mature" and "paying attention to both general guidelines and details", attaching more importance to legislation in social management and public service. It is actively exploring public participation systems including asking for public suggestions when enacting drafts of laws and regulations and legislative hearings.
Power without supervision is sure to lead to corruption. Administrative reconsideration is an important means of supervision on specific administrative acts. From 1999 to the end of 2007, administrative reconsideration institutions at various levels have accumulatively received 691,290 administrative reconsideration applications, of which they accepted 620,231 and solved 561,793. It has timely revised a series of illegal or improper administrative acts and effectively safeguarded people's lawful rights.
In order to eliminate illegal abstract administrative acts, Chinese government has been actively exploring standardized documents supervision and management systems, and preliminarily established a standardized documents record and supervision system with "four-level governments and three-level supervision".
Administrative law enforcement has changed from duplicate enforcement to a pattern featuring relative concentration of the right of punishment, comprehensive enforcement and consistency of rights and duties. In 1999, the State Council required to push forward the accountability system of administrative law enforcement. In July 2005, it issued the Several Opinions on Pushing Forward the Administrative Law Enforcement Accountability System and made overall arrangements for its enforcement.
In the process of establishing administration by law, the administrational institutions have improved themselves greatly, including extending police services, establishing and perfecting the 110 quick-reaction mechanism and implementing a police service strategy covering both the city and countryside.
At present, there are already 174,000 police service offices in communities and villages, with 210,000 police staff. They have made great achievements in keeping the social order and promoting harmony and stability of our society.
Progress in Justice
In the past 60 years, China has consistently pursued the concept of "people administrate justice". New China's judiciary was established along with its birth. On October 1, 1949, the first meeting of Central People's Government appointed Shen Junru as the first President of the Supreme People's Court, Luo Rongheng as Procurator General of Supreme People's Procuratorate. And then establishment of the organizational framework of people's courts and people's procuratorate was started.
In the first years after the founding of People's Republic of China, nationwide reforms of judicial affairs were carried out. "The reform was criticizing ideas of the old system, eliminating the old articles and reorganizing the working staff," said Chen Guangzhong, a full professor of China University of Political Science and Law. During the Cultural Revolution, public security organs, procuratorial organs and people's courts were destroyed. In 1978, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate were rebuilt. In 1979, Ministry of Justice was rebuilt and the lawyer system was restored. In the same year, Organic Law of the People's Courts and Organic Law of the People's Procuratorates were issued after revision.
Since the reform and opening up, China's judiciary construction has developed on the right path. The People's Courts, People's Procuratorates and judicial authorities have played a prominent role in safeguarding human rights and fighting crimes.
In the recent years, the reform of judicial affairs has been intensified. The People's Court established death penalty reviewing system, judicial committee working mechanism, juvenile criminal trial system and procedure for supervision upon adjudication, and implemented reform on execution mechanism. Procuratorial organs promoted people's supervisor system, improved the system of sound recording and video recording in the investigating interrogation, and strengthened anti-dereliction of duty and infringement on citizen's rights. Judicial administrative organs experimented reforms of the prison system and community correction, further completing the penalty execution system.
Besides, China has promoted legal services for disadvantaged groups. Since 1994, China started to construct law aid system. At present, China has established more than 3,200 legal aid organizations and more than 55,000 legal aid stations. In the ten years from 1999 to 2008, the legal aid organizations altogether dealt with 2.38 million cases and provided legal aid to 3.72 million people.
Since 1986, China has implemented the Five-year Plan of Legal Popularization step by step in an organized way. Currently, the fifth Five-year plan is well under way. People's legal awareness and legal knowledge have greatly improved. A social atmosphere in which people consciously learn laws, abide by laws and apply laws is forming, and the legalized management ability of Chinese society is enhanced.
In the current new era, Chinese legal system is making unremitting efforts in safeguarding the lawful rights of people and maintaining social equality and justice.
By People's Daily Online
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