I. Establishment of the Socialist System of Laws with Chinese Characteristics
The socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics was formed gradually under the leadership of the CPC in the course of adapting itself to the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
When the People's Republic of China was founded, it was confronted with the difficult tasks of organizing and consolidating the new political power, restoring and developing the national economy, and realizing and guaranteeing the people's right to be masters of the country. To meet the needs of construction of the political power, from 1949 to 1954, before the convening of the First National People's Congress (NPC), China promulgated and implemented the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which acted as a temporary constitution, and enacted the Organic Law of the Central People's Government, Trade Union Law, Marriage Law, Land Reform Law, Interim Regulations on the Organization of the People's Courts, Interim Regulations on the Organization of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Regulations on Punishment of Counter-revolutionaries, Interim Regulations on Punishment for Impairment of the State Currency, Regulations on Punishment for Embezzlement, Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses, and laws and regulations on the organization of local people's governments and local judicial organs, on regional ethnic autonomy, on the management of public and private enterprises, and on labor protection. With these laws and regulations, New China embarked on its course of development of democracy and the legal system.
In 1954 the First Session of the First NPC was held. The session adopted the first Constitution of New China, which established the principles for people's democracy and socialism, established the people's congress system as a fundamental political system, and provided for the basic rights and obligations of Chinese citizens. The session also adopted organic laws of the NPC, the State Council, local people's congresses and local people's committees, people's courts, and people's procuratorates, thus establishing the basic principles for state affairs. In 1956 the Eighth National Congress of the CPC proposed that "the state must make a complete legal system gradually and systematically according to its needs." Before the "cultural revolution" broke out in 1966, China's legislature had enacted over 130 laws and decrees. The building of democracy and the legal system in this period provided valuable experiences for building a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. During the "cultural revolution," China suffered grave setbacks in its work to improve democracy and the legal system, and its legislation almost came to a standstill.