Legislation Law: Another Milestone in China

Some deputies to the 9th National People's Congress (NPC), in session Beijing since March 5, held that the draft Legislation Law under examination embodies the principles of the rule of law and maintaining the unity of legislation.

Guanjue Cailang, a deputy from Qinghai Province, said that the draft Legislation Law -- a law on law-making, sums up the experience of China's legislative work in the past 20 years of reform and standardizes the country's legislative system, with detailed stipulations on the power and procedures of legislation, the validity grades of laws and supervision over legislation.

He said the draft law is now mature for enactment after the NPC Standing Committee has twice examined and revised it.

As the sole draft law to be examined and adopted by the NPC at its current session, the draft Legislation Law contains stipulations on the limits of legislative power of the NPC and its standing committee, the State Council, people's congresses at the provincial level and their standing committees, and ethnic minority autonomous regions and localities.

The draft Legislation Law specially defines 10 areas where the NPC and its Standing Committee have exclusive legislative power. These areas concern China's basic political and economic systems, and civil and criminal laws, including stipulations on the deprivation of citizens' political rights, restrictions on their personal freedom, and systems of litigation and arbitration.

Since it started implementing reform and open policies, China has made much progress in lawmaking-related legislation. But problems exist: some laws and regulations have gone beyond the limits of their authority; some regulations do not conform with, but contravene, laws and other regulations; and some regulations have been formulated out of departmental and local interests.

Chen Tiedi, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, said that the Legislation Law will improve the quality of legislation and facilitate governing the country by law.

Shan Rongfan, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of Heilongjiang Provincial People's Congress, said it is necessary to enact a law on law-making, adding, "It is very important to maintain the unity of China's legal system and to overcome and prevent the tendency of stressing local and departmental interests to the neglect of the overall interests of the state in legislative work."

Li Zemin, chairman of Zhejiang Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee, said that the guidelines and objectives of the draft Legislation Law are clear and that its structure and terms for standardization are scientific and rational.

He expressed agreement to a term of the draft law, the result of a recent revision: when departmental regulations and local regulations on one and the same issue are contradictory, local regulations apply; in case the State Council deems otherwise, a decision should be made by the NPC Standing Committee.

According to the NPC Standing Committee, the last 21 years haveseen the enactment of 370 state-level laws and a big number of local laws and regulations, which constitute a socialist legal framework with Chinese characteristics for the country.

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