On December 29, 2023, the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) concluded in Beijing, and the meeting voted to adopt the decision of the NPC Standing Committee on improving and strengthening the filing and review system.
Filing and review is a constitutional supervision system with Chinese characteristics, and an important system to ensure the implementation of the Constitution and laws and maintain the unity of the country's rule of law. Filing and reviewing administrative regulations, local regulations, and judicial interpretations is an important function and power entrusted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress by the Constitution and laws.
This reporter has learned that this is the first time that the NPC Standing Committee has made special provisions on the filing and examination system in the form of a decision.
Persist in being prepared and must be reviewed, and clarify the key content of the review
First of all, the decision clarifies the scope of the NPC Standing Committee's filing: administrative regulations, supervision regulations, local regulations, autonomous regulations and special regulations of autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties, regulations on special economic zones, regulations on the Pudong New Area, regulations on the Hainan Free Port, and interpretations made by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on the specific application of law in adjudication and procuratorial work. It also stipulates that regulations and judicial interpretations shall be submitted for filing within 30 days from the date of promulgation.
In addition, general provisions are made for insisting on the mandatory review of those who are prepared: improve the review work mechanism, refine the review content, standardize the review procedures, and comprehensively use methods such as review by application, active review, special review, transfer review and joint review to carry out review work in accordance with the law. At the same time, the duties of examination are clearly stipulated, and the special committees of the National People's Congress and the working bodies of the Standing Committee are responsible for the examination work.
What is the focus of the filing review and what standards need to be used for the review?”
On December 27, Yan Dongfeng, director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said in a collective interview that it was decided to integrate and refine the key content of the review into six situations: whether it conforms to the provisions of the Constitution, the principles of the Constitution and the spirit of the Constitution;Whether it is in line with the major decision-making and deployment of the country and the direction of major national reforms;Whether it exceeds its authority, derogates from the rights of citizens, legal persons and other organizations or increases their obligations;Whether it violates the provisions of the superior law;Whether there is a violation of legal procedures;Whether the measures taken are consistent with the principle of proportionality with their purpose.
In order to implement the requirements of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on 'improving and strengthening the filing and review system', we have formed a decision on legal issues, so that it has legal effect, and formed a relatively systematic and complete filing and review system to provide legal basis, legal guarantee and legal support for the filing and review work in the future. Yan Dongfeng said.
Practice whole-process people's democracy and improve mechanisms for handling review recommendations
Since 2017, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has heard and deliberated the annual filing and review report every year, and the filing and review work has been made explicit, institutionalized and normalized, and the unique effect of the filing and review system has become increasingly apparent. Shen Chunyao, director of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, pointed out in his report on the filing and review work in 2023.
In recent years, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has paid attention to improving the mechanisms, channels and methods for absorbing public opinion and gathering people's wisdom in the filing and review work, and has strived to make the filing and review system mechanism and work practice a concrete embodiment of the major concept of whole-process people's democracy in the new era and new journey.
In 2023, a total of 2,827 review suggestions from citizens and organizations will be received, of which 2,282 will be sent in writing and 545 will be submitted to the platform through filing and review**. The Legislative Affairs Commission shall study the review suggestions one by one, put forward review opinions, and give feedback to the review suggestors in accordance with regulations. Shen Chunyao introduced.
In this regard, a reporter asked: How to further increase the enthusiasm of citizens to put forward review suggestions?
Any citizen or organization that discovers that there are violations of the Constitution or laws in laws and regulations, judicial interpretations, etc., can log on to the Chinese National Congress website and submit review suggestions on the filing review suggestion ** submission platform. Yan Dongfeng said in a collective interview that the next step will be to promote the construction of a database of national laws and regulations, so that citizens can log in to the database to consult and directly put forward review suggestions, and practice the whole process of people's democracy.
Respond to social concerns and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of citizens
Stop restricting the 'joint sitting' of close relatives of persons involved in crimes;The local ban on fireworks needs to be modified;Correcting the ...... of the provisions on preferential recruitment of answers to answer sheets in specific ethnic languages”
It is worth noting that this year's filing review report discloses a number of typical cases, among which the cases involving the review and research of constitutionality and constitutionality issues have aroused widespread concern in the society once they have been released.
The case points out that some municipal district deliberative and coordinating bodies have issued notices to take punitive measures against key persons involved in certain types of crimes, including restrictions on the rights of spouses, children, parents, and other close relatives of key persons involved in crimes in areas such as education, employment, and social security. Some citizens believe that such restrictive measures are in fact "joint" in nature.
According to the research of the Legislative Affairs Commission, the legal responsibility for any illegal and criminal acts should be borne by the perpetrators themselves, and cannot be connected or extended to others, which is a basic principle of the modern rule of lawThe relevant circulars restrict the rights of the close relatives of persons involved in crimes, which violates the principle of bearing responsibility for crimes, does not conform to the principles and spirit of the provisions of Chapter II of the Constitution on "the basic rights and duties of citizens", and does not conform to the principles and spirit of the state's laws and regulations on education, employment, social security, and so on.
The case also mentions that some local regulations stipulate that the sale and discharge of fireworks and firecrackers are completely prohibited. Some citizens and enterprises have made suggestions for review of the blanket prohibition.
After review, the Legislative Affairs Commission believes that the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the regulations on the safety management of fireworks and firecrackers formulated by the People's Republic of China, and other laws and administrative regulations do not make comprehensive prohibitions on the sale and discharge of fireworks and firecrackers that meet the quality standards, and at the same time authorize the people at or above the county level to delineate the time period and area for restricting or prohibiting the discharge of fireworks and firecrackersThe provisions of the relevant local regulations on the complete prohibition of the sale and discharge of fireworks and firecrackers are inconsistent with the relevant provisions of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law and the Regulations on the Safety Management of Fireworks and Firecrackers;With regard to the issue of a complete ban on sales and burning, there are differences in understanding, and it is difficult to enforce in practice, so it should be revised in accordance with the spirit of the provisions of the higher-level law.
In addition, the report also introduces the preliminary considerations for the filing and review work in 2024, including: strengthening the supervision of the implementation of the Constitution through the filing review;Fully implement the decision on improving and strengthening the filing and review system;Improve the system and mechanism for filing and review;Practice the major concept of whole-process people's democracy;Close contact and guidance with local people's congresses;Improve the level of theoretical research and publicity work for filing and review.
*: People's Court Daily reporter: Zhang Meng