A typical case of public interest litigation to protect the camp site of Agate Mountain

Mondo Social Updated on 2024-02-21

The natural conditions such as mountains, cliffs, caves, and water are fully applied to the construction of the camp, and the military strategy and tactics of attack, defense, retreat and defense are carefully and scientifically planned and deployed - the 100,000-square-meter Agate Mountain camp site is known as "the wonder in the history of ancient Chinese military architecture".

The sword light is gone, but the camp is still there.

In February 2021, the People's Procuratorate of Fenggang County, Zunyi City, received clues about the damage to the site, and gave full play to the functions of the procuratorate as "public interest lawsuit", "supervision lawsuit" and "coordinated lawsuit", convened a round table meeting, formulated and issued procuratorial suggestions, and filed public interest lawsuits, urging administrative organs to restore and protect damaged ancient military and cultural sites, and strengthen the supervision and traceability of similar cases, so as to promote the protection of cultural relics and the coordinated promotion of villages with ethnic minority characteristics and the local economy. Recently, this administrative public interest litigation case was rated by the Supreme People's Procuratorate as a typical case of the "Ten Cases Demonstration" of the national procuratorate.

National key cultural relics protection units.

From getting clues to discovering problems: visiting and investigating revealed that the supervision of the department was not in place.

In case of **, who will be responsible? Just thinking of this possibility, He Renliang, director of the Second Procuratorate Department of the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate, was afraid of the poor protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site.

The Agate Mountain Yingpan Site is an ancient military cultural relic located in Agate Village, Suiyang Town, Fenggang County, and is also the only "National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit" in the county. This site was built in the first year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, rebuilt in the Xiantong year of the Qing Dynasty, it is the largest, the most complete functional layout, the most advanced military defense idea of the mountain military fortification in nearly 1,000 Qing Dynasty camps in Guizhou and even the southwest region, and is praised by experts as "the wonder in the history of ancient Chinese military architecture". The existing city wall is more than 11,000 meters, 48 city gates, 2 underground military passages totaling 2,000 meters, a field dam site, a training ground site, 1 stone grinding trough, 38 stone nests, 10 forts, and more than 500 shooting holes. The flagpole stone outside the wall and the inscription of the camp still exist.

In December 1999, the Agate Mountain Yingpan site was listed as a provincial cultural relics protection unit, and in October 2019, it was listed as the eighth batch of "national key cultural relics protection units".

In March 2021, during the visit of the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate, some people reported: "The poor protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site may lead to the destruction of cultural relics and hidden dangers in fire safety." The hospital immediately began an investigation.

According to the relevant cultural relics protection regulations, after the approval and announcement of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site as a 'national security' unit, the administrative department of cultural relics should prepare a protection plan within one year, but from October 2019 to March 2021, there is no such plan, and even the 'three prevention' facilities (fire protection, security, and lightning protection) are not in place. He Renliang said.

The problem does not stop there, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate also found after investigation: the administrative department of cultural relics did not timely delineate the scope of cultural relics protection and construction control zone; Some of the ancient city wall walls have collapsed, loosened and fallen due to disrepair, and the safety problems are prominent. A large number of trees and vines grow inside and outside the ancient city wall and some walls, which not only changes the historical appearance of cultural relics, but also seriously endangers the safety of the wall; There are many modern buildings such as public toilets, cattle pens, and steel frame sheds that are not related to the protection of cultural relics in the core part of the Yingpan site, which affects the historical appearance of cultural relics.

From the issuance of procuratorial suggestions to the initiation of public interest litigation: urging administrative organs to perform their duties.

The Fenggang County People's Procuratorate quickly reported the clues of this case to the Zunyi City People's Procuratorate and the Guizhou Provincial People's Procuratorate, and initiated an integrated case-handling work mechanism.

The procuratorial officer introduced the Chinese culture hidden in the mast.

Cultural relics protection is very professional, so we invited two cultural relics protection experts to conduct on-site surveys and consult what is the conservation value of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site? What protective measures should be taken? At the same time, I consulted a lot of cultural relics protection cases. Feng Chunmei, deputy director of the Eighth Procuratorate Department of the Zunyi Municipal People's Procuratorate, said.

On March 18, 2021, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate issued a pre-trial procuratorial recommendation to the county's cultural relics administrative department responsible for cultural relics protection, in combination with the written protection opinions issued by cultural relics protection experts. It is suggested that it should compile a protection plan for the national key cultural relics protection units of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site in accordance with the law, strengthen the protection of the cultural relics themselves, and urge the users and managers of cultural relics to improve the fire safety management mechanism.

After receiving the procuratorial proposal, the administrative department for cultural relics did not reply to the rectification situation within the two-month statutory time limit, nor did it fully perform the duties of cultural relics protection in accordance with the law.

In order to promote the protection of national key cultural relics, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate has repeatedly communicated with the county's administrative department for cultural relics about the protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site, but it said that "it is difficult to rectify". In August 2021, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate made three consecutive return visits in the work of "looking back" on public interest litigation and found that the administrative department for cultural relics still did not carry out comprehensive rectification of the existing problems in accordance with the law.

On July 26, 2021, the administrative department of cultural relics replied to the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate, saying that "in June 2020, a design and research institute in Beijing commissioned a design and research institute in Beijing to compile the "Fenggang County Agate Mountain Yingpan Site Protection Planning Project" and the "Three Defenses" project, which passed the county-level review in April 2021, and the planning text is still being further revised and improved. The delineation of the 'two lines' of Agate Mountain has been studied and approved at the county level, and will be submitted to the provinces and cities in September 2020 for approval and announcement. For the repair of the ontology of the cultural relics of Agate Mountain, the ontology protection and repair plan declared in June 2021 has passed the municipal review and has been submitted to the province for approval. ”

On September 10, 2021, with the approval of the Guizhou Provincial People's Procuratorate, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate filed an administrative public interest lawsuit with the Fenggang County People's Court in accordance with the law, requesting that the sued administrative organ be ordered to perform its duties of protecting and supervising the protection of cultural relics at the Agate Mountain Yingpan Site in accordance with the law.

In court, the two parties focused on the question "Is there any illegal situation in which the administrative organ being sued is negligent in performing its duties?" Should the supervision and management duties be continued with respect to the cultural relics involved in the case? A debate ensued.

Since this was an administrative public interest litigation case involving the public interests of the broad masses of the people, the Fenggang County People's Court invited four people's assessors and three judges to form a seven-member collegial panel to hear the case in accordance with the law.

On February 14, 2022, the Fenggang County People's Court ruled that "the sued administrative organ should be ordered to fully perform its duties of protecting and supervising the protection of cultural relics at the Yingpan site of Agate Mountain in accordance with the law".

From "I am in charge" to "I am in charge": the protection of cultural relics still needs to form a joint force.

The protection of cultural relics requires the cohesion of many parties.

After the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate found that there were many problems in the protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site, on the one hand, it urged the Fenggang County Cultural Relics Administrative Department to perform its regulatory duties, and on the other hand, in accordance with the deployment of the provincial and municipal procuratorates, on June 9, 2021, it reported to the Fenggang County Party Committee and the county ** on the problems and protection suggestions for the protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site. On September 26 of the same year, the people of Fenggang County convened the county procuratorate, the Culture and Tourism Bureau, the Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, the Natural Resources Bureau, the Forestry Bureau, the Longquan Sub-district Office, Suiyang Town and other departments to study the protection of cultural relics.

The battery inside the ruins.

The protection of cultural relics is not only the business of the administrative department in charge of cultural relics. Feng Chunmei said that the duty of the procuratorial organs is to unite the forces of all parties in society, promote multi-party linkage, and promote the "all management" of administrative law enforcement with the performance of procuratorial duties.

After the people's court made a judgment, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate continued to supervise, the county cultural relics administrative department immediately carried out the rectification work, formulated the "Fenggang County Onyx Mountain Yingpan Site Protection and Rectification Plan", entrusted a qualified third-party agency to complete the "Fenggang County Onyx Mountain Yingpan Site Protection Plan", has been reviewed and approved by the Guizhou Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, to be fully implemented after the official approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and strive for the "three prevention" funds of 20 million yuan;Part of the funds that have been put in place have been used to comprehensively clean up the trees and weeds near the ancient city wall that affect the safety of the cultural relicsThe site is equipped with emergency fire extinguishing equipment, temporary lightning protection and other facilities;The establishment of Fenggang County Cultural Relics Management Institute, the introduction of a professional to be responsible for the protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site, etc.

Chen Wendong, a full-time member of the adjudication committee who served as the presiding judge of the case, said: "Now we have urged the relevant departments to partially implement some protective measures. The protection of cultural relics is relatively professional, and it needs to be verified by experts and approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage before scientific restoration and scientific protection can be carried out. As long as the judgment is not enforced, we will follow up on the enforcement of this case. ”

Through the joint efforts of various departments, the Agate Mountain Yingpan site was successfully listed as one of the 34 cultural inheritance projects in Guizhou Province during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, which created favorable conditions for the protection of the site.

From case-by-case supervision to source management: cultural relics protection is always on the way.

The protection of cultural relics is not limited to the Agate Mountain camp site.

After achieving certain results in handling the administrative public interest litigation case of the Yingpan site in Agate Mountain, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate continued to explore, and issued a social governance procuratorial suggestion to the administrative department of cultural relics in Fenggang County in view of the problems of some cultural relics in the county not setting up markers and failing to demarcate the "two lines" in accordance with the law, suggesting that it strengthen the protection of cultural relics in Fenggang County, and scientifically delineate the scope of cultural relics protection and construction control zones.

After receiving the procuratorial suggestion, the administrative department in charge of cultural relics immediately carried out special rectification, applied for special funds, and set up protection signs and demarcated "two lines" in accordance with the law for 64 cultural relics protection units that have not set up protection signs and monuments and have not demarcated the "two lines", so as to truly handle cases on a case-by-case basis and realize the supervision of similar cases.

The site of Agate Mountain Yingpan is located in Agate Village, Suiyang Town, Fenggang County, which is impressively listed in the first batch of Chinese traditional village lists, and also belongs to the clear historical and cultural villages of Zunyi City. On March 15, 2022, the procuratorate issued a procuratorial recommendation to the administrative department of the county, urging it to strengthen the protection of traditional villages and villages with ethnic minority characteristics in its jurisdiction. On October 24, 2023, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate filed an administrative public interest lawsuit with the Fenggang County People's Court, and the case is being handled.

In December 2023, in the "Notice on Selected Cases of "Ten Case Demonstration" and "Hundred Case Evaluation" Cases issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the administrative public interest litigation case of the Managate Mountain Yingpan Site handled by the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate was selected as a typical case of the "Ten Case Demonstration", which greatly encouraged the cadres and police of the whole court.

We will continue to focus on high-quality and efficient case handling, so that procuratorial suggestions are more targeted and effective; Focus on the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside and bring cultural relics to life; Focus on traceability and governance, and smooth the supervision of administrative organs. Chen Shouqian, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Procurator General of the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate, said with confidence, and at the same time, he expressed his wishes: "I hope that the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will approve the protection plan as soon as possible, realize the restoration of the Agate Mountain site as soon as possible, and improve the effectiveness of public interest litigation." ”

Interview with the Procurator **The procuratorate handles the case in an integrated manner.

Guizhou Rule of Law News: In the process of handling the case of the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate, how did the provincial procuratorate guide the handling of this case?

Wu Kaiyan: In the handling of the case, the Guizhou Provincial Procuratorate conducted many field surveys to understand the current situation of the protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan Site, timely grasped the progress and difficulties of the grassroots procuratorate in handling the case, gave full play to the advantages of the integrated procuratorial case-handling mechanism, integrated the strength of the procuratorate, discussed and judged, analyzed the feasibility and effectiveness of the prosecution of the case, the legitimacy of the qualification of the subject of the lawsuit, and the reasonableness of the litigation claim, and guided the grassroots procuratorate to conduct a comprehensive investigation, make precise recommendations, prosecute in accordance with the law, and effectively implement, standardize all aspects of case handling, and ensure that " Precise" and "standardized" case handling.

Wu Kaiyan: Deputy Director of the Eighth Procuratorate Department of the Guizhou Provincial People's Procuratorate.

Guizhou Rule of Law News: What enlightenment does this case bring to the procuratorate to promote public interest litigation?

Wu Kaiyan: This case was selected as a typical case of the "Ten Cases Demonstration" of the national procuratorial organs, which provides a reference for the procuratorial organs of the province to handle administrative public interest litigation cases and cultural relics protection cases in the future. Ancient military relics have strong value for military research, cultural relics protection and tourism development, and their protection status and protection measures are also very professional. With the support of the "external brain", the procuratorate invited cultural relics protection experts to inspect the site many times, and issued expert opinions on the protection value of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site, where the cultural relics were damaged, and what rescue protection measures were urgently needed, so as to provide professional guidance for handling the case, and promote the procuratorial organs to accurately formulate and issue procuratorial suggestions and initiate public interest litigation.

The second is to continue to follow up and supervise, and reflect the guidance of judicial value with the confirmation of "litigation". In the process of handling the case, the procuratorial organs firmly grasped the essence of the procuratorial public interest litigation "public interest lawsuit" and "supervision lawsuit", paid attention to whether the administrative organs performed their duties, and also paid attention to the actual state of the protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site. At the same time, in view of the long time required for the protection of cultural relics, after the judgment takes effect, we will continue to follow up on the enforcement of the judgment to ensure that the case is effective.

The third is to deepen the active performance of duties and realize the progression from "treating the symptoms" to "treating the root causes". In the process of handling the case, the procuratorial organs did not just "handle the case well", but "peeled off the cocoon" of the cultural relics protection issues reflected in the investigation and evidence collection, convening round table meetings, and court trials, digging deep into the deep-seated reasons behind the improper protection of cultural relics in the jurisdiction, formulating and issuing procuratorial suggestions for social governance, promoting the administrative organs to carry out special rectification, promoting the solution of common problems in the protection of cultural relics in the jurisdiction, promoting the reduction of similar cases from the source, and striving to achieve both the symptoms and the root causes, and trace the source.

Expert's Opinion: Enlightenment of the Administrative Public Interest Litigation Case of the Agate Mountain Yingpan Site.

Cultural relics are important carriers of China's splendid history and excellent culture. The "Administrative Public Interest Litigation Case of Urging the Protection of the Ancient Military Cultural Relics of Agate Mountain Yingpan Site" handled by the People's Procuratorate of Fenggang County, Zunyi City, was selected as a typical case of the Supreme People's Procuratorate's "Ten Cases Demonstration", which provides reference and guidance for the Guizhou Provincial Procuratorate to carry out administrative public interest litigation with high quality and efficiency, and to help the protection of cultural relics and cultural heritage.

Meng Qingyan is an associate researcher at the Institute of Law, Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences.

Looking back at the facts of the case, it is not difficult to find that the selected cases follow the process of investigation and consultation, formulation and issuance of procuratorial recommendations, and then negotiation until the initiation of litigation, which fully reflects the step-by-step and progressive case handling model of administrative public interest litigation. The Fenggang County People's Procuratorate immediately carried out a visit and investigation after receiving the clues from the masses and filed the case in a timely manner, and when it was determined that the administrative department had not performed its duties in accordance with the law, which may lead to the risk of damage to the cultural relics, the county procuratorate issued a pre-trial procuratorial recommendation to the County Culture and Tourism Bureau, suggesting that it fully perform its duties of supervision of cultural relics protection in accordance with the law. At the same time, the county procuratorate has convened a joint meeting and round table meeting with the participation of the county culture and tourism bureau, the people of Suiyang Town, and the party working committee of Fenggang County state-owned enterprises, in an attempt to promote the solution of the protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site through pre-litigation consultation. When none of the above measures made effective progress, the county procuratorate filed an administrative public interest lawsuit with the county culture and tourism bureau as the defendant. In accordance with the provisions of relevant laws, regulations, and normative documents, the county court supports all litigation requests of the procuratorial organs, and compels the administrative departments to perform their supervision and management duties by way of judgments.

Although the judgment has entered into force, the implementation process is fraught with difficulties. In the litigation stage, the county procuratorate synchronously formed a special report on the handling of the case and the difficulties in the protection of the Agate Mountain Yingpan site, reported to the county party committee and the county, sought financial support, and finally promoted the solution of the problem through the linkage between the government and the court. The whole process is led and promoted by the procuratorate, which is the empowerment of the administrative public interest litigation system to the people's procuratorate's legal supervision function, and it is also the responsibility of the procuratorate. Therefore, in the post-litigation stage, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate took the initiative to perform its duties and once again held a round table meeting on the rectification work attended by the Fenggang County Culture and Tourism Bureau, the people of Suiyang Town, and the Party Working Committee of Fenggang County State-owned Enterprises, and gradually implemented the "Fenggang County Agate Mountain Yingpan Site Protection and Rectification Plan".

The procuratorial administrative public interest litigation system solves the problem of no qualified entity playing a role when the public interest is harmed, and is an effective remedy for the shortcomings of the existing system, such as when the public interest such as Chinese objects in this case is harmed, the procuratorial organ will exercise the relevant rights as a qualified subject. In the process of handling this case, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate took the initiative to actively perform its duties in response to the issue of funds for the maintenance of cultural relics and the coordination and linkage of various departments, and adopted methods such as organizing pre-trial consultations, issuing procuratorial suggestions, and convening roundtable meetings, striving to achieve public interest protection with the minimum judicial cost, and trying to solve the problem at the front end by formulating and issuing procuratorial suggestions, so as to reduce the increase in litigation from the source. At the same time, when the procuratorial suggestion cannot solve the problem, the method of "litigation" is initiated to ensure rigid supervision. The Fenggang County People's Procuratorate has adopted a unique model of combining rigidity and softness in administrative public interest litigation, which is to carry out pre-trial investigation and consultation, strive for the linkage of the government and the court during the litigation, and promote coordinated law enforcement after the litigation, and the case-handling model is worthy of recognition and reference. On this basis, the Fenggang County People's Procuratorate found that there are many ethnic minority characteristic villages and historical and cultural towns (famous villages) in the jurisdiction where the Agate Mountain Yingpan site is located, and there is still a problem of poor protection. To this end, the procuratorate issued procuratorial suggestions to the county culture and tourism bureau and the county housing and urban-rural development bureau respectively, coordinated and sought special funding support, and promoted the strengthening of the protection of ethnic minority traditional villages and historical and cultural towns (famous villages) within the jurisdiction. This effectively solves the litigation pressure of various departments and realizes the social effect of high-quality and efficient judicial case handling to help the protection of cultural relics and cultural heritage.

Since the establishment of the procuratorial public interest litigation system, public interest litigation procuratorial departments at all levels have always regarded administrative public interest litigation as their main responsibility and main business, steadily expanding their business fields, improving case-handling procedures, fully releasing the effectiveness of the social governance system, making administrative law enforcement behaviors more standardized, and increasingly prominent social effects, so as to do practical things for the people, solve public interest protection problems, improve the quality and efficiency of public interest protection, and continuously improve the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security.

Guizhou**Tianyan News reporter Long Liqiong.

Correspondent: Meng Qingyan.

Edited by Yao Changxi.

Second instance Chang Yueyue.

Third trial Huang Feng.

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