II. Legislation and Legal System with Chinese Characteristics
The People's Republic of China is a united, multi-ethnic and unitary socialist country. To guarantee the uniformity of the legal system of the state and reflect the common will and overall interests of the people, China exercises uniform yet multi-tiered legislation.
The Constitution prescribes that the NPC and its Standing Committee exercise the legislative power of the state. The NPC enacts and amends basic laws, such as the criminal law and civil law as well as organic laws on state organs and other matters. The Standing Committee of the NPC enacts and amends laws other than those that should be enacted by the NPC, and it can partially supplement and amend, when the NPC is not in session, laws enacted by the NPC, provided that the basic principles of these laws are not contravened.
In accordance with the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China, laws on the following affairs must be made exclusively by the NPC and its Standing Committee: affairs involving state sovereignty, the formation, organization as well as the functions and powers of state organs, the system of regional ethnic autonomy, the system of special administrative regions, the system of self-government of people at the grassroots level, criminal offences and their punishment, deprivation of citizens' political rights, mandatory measures and penalties involving restriction of the freedom of the person, expropriation of non-state-owned property, basic civil system, basic economic system and basic systems of finance, taxation, customs, banking and foreign trade, and systems of litigation and arbitration.
With a vast land, China faces complicated conditions and imbalanced development among different regions. To guarantee the uniformity of the state's legal system and yet adapt to different conditions in different regions, the Constitution and Legislation Law both prescribe that, in addition to the NPC and its Standing Committee, the State Council may enact administrative regulations in accordance with the Constitution and the law; the people's congresses or their standing committees of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government may enact local regulations, provided that such regulations do not contradict the Constitution, the laws and administrative regulations, and approve local regulations formulated by people's congresses or their standing committees of the larger cities; the people's congresses of the ethnic autonomous areas have the power to enact autonomous regulations and separate regulations on the basis of the political, economic and cultural conditions of the local ethnic group(s). Moreover, the ministries and commissions of the State Council and the other organs endowed with administrative functions directly under the State Council may, in accordance with the laws and administrative regulations, enact rules within the limits of their power; and the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government and the larger cities may, in accordance with laws, administrative regulations and local regulations of their respective province, autonomous region or municipality, enact rules.
To conform to the fundamental interests of the public and the overall interests of the state, and at the same time take into consideration all types of specific interests and guarantee scientific and democratic legislation, the Chinese legal system prescribes the legislative procedures of the NPC and its Standing Committee, procedures for the State Council in making administrative regulations, and procedures for local people's congresses and their standing committees at various levels in enacting local regulations. The Standing Committee of the NPC follows the "system of three deliberations" in making laws, which means that a legal bill should be deliberated at three meetings of the Standing Committee of the NPC before it is voted on; and in the case of an important or controversial legal bill, it may undergo more than three deliberations. For instance, the bill of the Property Rights Law went through seven rounds of deliberation at the meetings of the Standing Committee of the NPC before being submitted to the Fifth Session of the Tenth NPC for discussion and adoption. A legal bill submitted to the NPC should be repeatedly deliberated at the plenary meetings, delegation sessions and group discussions of the Congress; and a legal bill submitted to the Standing Committee of the NPC should go through deliberations at the plenary sessions and group discussions of the Standing Committee. Before being promulgated, each law must go through repeated deliberations until a consensus is reached, and then be submitted to the NPC or its Standing Committee for final voting at a plenary meeting. This process, involving many rounds of deliberation, is precisely aimed at giving full expression to all kinds of interests through consultation, and adjusting and balancing relations between different interests. This democratic process, focusing on full consultation before a bill is submitted for final voting, displays a distinctive feature of the system of the NPC of China.
In the legislative process, we uphold democracy, pool the people's wisdom and reflect the people's will. To propose legal bills and bills concerning administrative regulations and local regulations, the legislation authorities listen to opinions from all sectors of society through various ways, such as holding forums, feasibility study meetings, hearings, so as to enhance transparency and public participation. Bills of laws, regulations and rules concerning vital public interests or dictating the obligations of citizens are published in full in the news media to ask for comments from the people. After being adopted, the laws and regulations are published in a timely way in gazettes of the people's congresses and governments at all levels, government websites and the mass media. In recent years, the Standing Committee of the NPC and the State Council have sought advice from all sectors of society regarding draft laws and administrative regulations, including the Property Rights Law, Law on Labor Contracts, Law on the Promotion of Employment and Regulations on the Administration of Properties. The Standing Committee of the NPC has held feasibility study meetings and hearings regarding revisions of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics, Law on Individual Income Tax, and others.