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| Building legal fabric for the future |
| CCTV.COM 2003-03-05 14:03:42 |
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China's rapid economic growth and integration into international trade has posed formidable challenges to its legal system. Over the past five years, the 9th National People's Congress, China's top law making body, has tried to get the country to match the pace of global trade while building up its legal fabric.
King & Wood, one of the biggest law firms in China, has operated for ten years on the economic front, dealing with mostly foreign clients. In the five years since 1998, the firm's staff couldn't ignore the country's rapid pace of legal construction in the economic sphere.
Susan Ning, partner of King & Wood PRC Lawyers, said: " More than 1,000 regulations and laws have been reviewed, 500 revoked, 200 laws revised. This is a kind of massive revision to the existing laws. Revisions of law not only result in the new rules, but also improved the transparency of the whole system. So that part gave extra confidence to investors including our clients."
All these revisions and new laws were made in the past five years by the NPC, China's top lawmaking body. The NPC Standing Committee goes into session every two months so lawmakers can debate any new laws or amendments to existing ones.
In 1999, an amendment to the Constitution was passed which incorporated Deng Xiaoping Theory and the principle of the rule of law. This has provided a strong foundation on which a socialist legal system has been built.
Qiao Xiaoyang, vice director of NPC Legislative Affairs Committee, said: "After five years' effort, a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics and with the Constitution as its core has taken form. Now China has established seven major legal categories, namely constitutional law, administrative laws, economic laws, social laws, criminal laws and litigation and non－litigation procedure laws."
Altogether, the 9th NPC passed 112 laws. These included one amendment to the Constitution, 74 ordinary laws, eight legal interpretations and 29 decisions on legal issues. Revisions such as the ones on Marriage, Cultural Relics Protection, Insurance and Corporate Laws all drew great public attention.
The Organic Law on Village Affairs enacted in 1998 also entitled villagers the rights of self－governance, a big step in building democracy in China's vast rural areas.
The legislative body also reformed its style of work to improve efficiency.
" The NPC has moved with the times to revise laws to meet with the demand of reform and development. For example, before and after China's WTO membership, it amended a batch of laws in a timely fashion. It also solicited more opinions from the public. We also held public hearings on some controversial law amendments," Qiao added.
The 9th NPC also drafted China's Civil Code. Though only in first reading, the draft signals a step forward in legal construction by offering more comprehensive protection of private property and more personal freedom in the market economy.
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Editor: Xiao Wei CCTV.com
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