How much do you know about the origin of National Constitution Day on December 4?Every year on this day, the state will carry out constitutional publicity and education activities in various forms, and the following is a brief introduction to the history of the National Constitution Day on December 4, welcome to refer to it.
The origin of the National Constitution Day on December 4
On November 1, 2014, the 11th session of the 12th National People's Congress made the Decision on Establishing the National Constitution Day. The decision to designate December 4 as the "National Constitution Day" in the form of a law is of great value to the state and the whole society to make full use of the National Constitution Day to actively and effectively carry out constitutional propaganda activities.
This decision is also a classic example of the timely transformation of the Party's policies into national laws, and has a very positive impact on promoting the timely introduction of various legal reform measures stipulated in a certain decision.
The Constitution is the fundamental law of the state and the general statute governing the country and has the highest legal status, legal authority and legal effect. Comprehensively implementing the Constitution is the primary task and basic work for comprehensively advancing the rule of law and building a socialist country ruled by law.
In order to enhance the constitutional awareness of the whole society, carry forward the spirit of the Constitution, strengthen the implementation of the Constitution, and comprehensively promote the rule of law, the 11th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress decided to establish December 4 as the National Constitution Day. The State is to carry out publicity and education activities on the Constitution through various forms.
The establishment of the "National Constitution Day" is an important ceremony that conveys the concept of governing the country and governing according to the constitution. The people of all ethnic groups throughout the country, all state organs and armed forces, all political parties, all social organizations, and all enterprises and institutions must take the Constitution as the fundamental norm for their activities, and have the duty to safeguard the dignity of the Constitution and ensure its implementation. No organization or individual may have privileges that go beyond the Constitution and laws, and all acts that violate the Constitution and laws must be investigated.
The emergence of the concept of the Constitution
The word "constitution", ** in Latin, originally means to organize and establish. The ancient Roman Empire used it to denote the "edicts" and "edicts" of the emperors, to distinguish them from the legal documents passed by the city councils.
In the "feudal" era of Europe, it was used to denote the confirmation of the basic principles of the state system in daily legislation, with the meaning of organic law. England established a representative system in the Middle Ages (which was not the case in the pre-Qin period of China) and established the principle that the king could not levy taxes and legislate otherwise without the consent of parliament (representative body). Later, the representative system was popularized in Europe and the United States, and people called the law that stipulates the representative system as the constitution, which refers to the law that confirms the constitutional form of government.
The words "constitution", "constitution" and "constitution" are synonymous with "law" in ancient Chinese classics, and "constitution" in ancient Japan also refers to laws and regulations, systems, all of which have different meanings from the modern word "constitution". During the Meiji Restoration in the 60s of the 19th century, with the introduction of the concept of constitutionalism from the West, the concept equivalent of Europe and the United States appeared in Japan.
Why not establish the date of adoption of the Common Programme as the National Constitution Day?
At that time, however, the military operations on the mainland had not yet been completely completed, the land reform had not yet been thoroughly realized, the people had not yet been fully organized, and the conditions for convening the National People's Congress on the basis of universal suffrage were not yet in place. What to do?The Communists are wise: they negotiated the establishment of New China by convening a political consultative conference composed of representatives from all walks of life elected through democratic consultations and representing the people of the whole country.
From September 21 to 30, 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was held in Beiping. Participating in the meeting were 45 constituent units, 510 deputies, 77 alternate deputies, and 75 specially invited persons, a total of 662 people, including representatives Chinese of the Communist Party of China and all democratic parties, people's organizations, the People's Liberation Army, various regions, nationalities, overseas Chinese, and other patriotic and democratic elements throughout China.
The meeting adopted the "Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference" on 29 September, which stipulates the important systems of the country, such as the state system of people's democracy and the political system of the people's congress system.
The meeting also formulated the People's Organic Law, which decided that the capital of the People's Republic of China should be in Beijing, the national flag of the People's Republic of China should be the five-star flag on the red ground, the march of the volunteers would be the national anthem, and the People's Republic of China should adopt the era of the Common Era, which played an important role. "Our current foundation is our common programme. * In the report of the draft 1954 Constitution, it was stated that the Common Programme "functioned as an interim constitution". The Common Program solves the issue of the constitutional basis for establishing and governing a new China at a time when the conditions for convening the National People's Congress are not yet available.
The Common Program was also the basis for the first constitution of the People's Republic of China in 1954. However, since the deputies to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference are not elected, the common program formulated by the CPPCC to serve as an interim constitution cannot be said to be a constitution. It is therefore only natural that the date of the adoption of the Common Programme has not been designated as National Constitution Day.