II. Composition of the Socialist System of Laws with Chinese Characteristics
The socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics is an organic integration of the related laws of the Constitution, civil and commercial laws, administrative laws, economic laws, social laws, criminal laws, litigation and non-litigation procedural laws, and other legal branches, with the Constitution in the supreme place, the laws as the main body, and administrative and local regulations as the major components.
1. Tiers of the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics
The Constitution is the paramount law of the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. As China's fundamental law, the Constitution assumes the commanding position in the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics and is the fundamental guarantee of lasting stability and security, unity of ethnic groups, economic development and social progress. In China, people of all ethnic groups, all state organs, the armed forces, all political parties and public organizations, and all enterprises and institutions in the country must take the Constitution as the basic standard of conduct, and they have the duty to uphold the dignity of the Constitution and ensure its implementation.
China's present Constitution is one with Chinese characteristics and geared to the needs of socialist modernization, and is the general charter for governance of the country and good order of the nation. It was passed by the NPC in 1982 after nationwide discussion. Later, in accordance with the national economic and social development, the NPC passed four Amendments to the Constitution. China's Constitution defines the basic system and basic tasks of the state, affirms the leadership of the CPC, establishes the guiding role of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of the Three Represents, determines the state system as a people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants, and takes the system of people's congresses as the form of administration. It rules that all state power belongs to the people and that the citizens enjoy extensive rights and freedom in accordance with the law, establishes the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the CPC, the system of regional ethnic autonomy and the system of primary-level self-governance, and specifies the basic economic system in which public ownership is dominant and diverse forms of ownership develop side by side and the distribution system in which distribution according to work is dominant and diverse modes of distribution coexist. While maintaining its stability, China's Constitution is constantly improving and advancing with the times, along with the reform and opening up and the progress of the cause of socialist modernization. Promptly written into the Constitution are important experience, principles and systems that have been proven mature by practice, which fully reflects the outstanding achievements of China's reform and opening up, the great achievements of the cause of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics and the self-improvement and constant development of the socialist system, providing a fundamental guarantee for the progress of the reform and opening up, and socialist modernization.