Decision of the National People's Congress on Revising the Legislative Law of the People's Republic of China
Decision of the National People's Congress on Revising the Legislative Law of the People's Republic of China
Decision of the National People's Congress on Revising the Legislative Law of the People's Republic of China
Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No.20
March 15, 2015
The Decision of the National People's Congress on Revising the Legislative Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision"), which was adopted at the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on March 15, 2015, is hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of the date of promulgation.
Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China
Decision of the National People's Congress on Revising the Legislative Law of the People's Republic of China
(Adopted at the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on March 15, 2015)
It has been decided at the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China to revise the Legislative Law of the People's Republic of China as follows:
I. Article 1 is revised to read: "The Legislative Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Law") is enacted in accordance with the Constitution in order to standardize lawmaking activities, improve state legislative institutions, improve the legislative quality, perfect the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, give play to the leading and promotion role of lawmaking, safeguard and develop socialist democracy, fully promote the governance of the country in accordance with the law, and build a socialist country under the rule of law."
II. Article 5 is revised to read: "Lawmaking shall reflect the will of the people, promote socialist democracy, persist in lawmaking publicity, and ensure the participation of the people in lawmaking in a variety of ways."
III. Article 6 is revised to read: "Lawmaking shall be based on actual circumstance and adaptive to economic and social development and requirements of comprehensively deepening reform, and shall, in a scientific and reasonable way, prescribe the rights and obligations of citizens, legal persons and other organizations, and the powers and duties of state organs.
"Legal norms shall be definite, specific, targeted and executable."
IV. One item is added to Article 8 as Item 6: "6. the establishment of tax categories, determination of tax rates, tax collection management and other basic taxation systems".
Item 6 is renumbered as Item 7, which is revised to read: "7. the expropriation and requisition of non-state-owned assets".
Item 8 is renumbered as Item 9, which is revised to read: "9. the basic economic system and basic financial, customs, finance and foreign trading systems".
V. Article 10 is split into two articles of Article 10 and Article 12 which are revised to read respectively as follows:
"Article 10 The authorization decision shall specify the objective, matter, scope and term of the authorization as well as governing principles for the organ so authorized to execute the authorization decision and others.
"The authorization term shall not exceed five years, unless otherwise prescribed in the authorization decision.
"The organ so authorized shall, six months before the expiry of the authorization term, report the implementation of the authorization decision to the enabling organ, and shall give its opinions on whether to formulate relevant laws; may give relevant opinions on the continuance of the authorization as it considers necessary, which shall be decided by the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee.
"Article 12 The organ so authorized shall exercise its power in strict compliance with the authorization decision.
"The organ so authorized shall not re-delegate its authority to any other body."
VI.. One article is added as Article 13, which reads: "The National People's Congress and its Standing Committee may decide to temporarily adjust or suspend the application of certain legal provisions in certain places within a certain period with regard to the authorization on certain matters in the fields of administrative management and others based on the requirements of reform and development."
VII. Article 14 is renumbered as Article 16, with one paragraph added thereto as Paragraph 2 whcih reads: "When deliberating the bill pursuant to the preceding paragraph, the Standing Committee shall solicit opinions from the representatives of the National People's Congress through various ways and feed back the relevant situations. The relevant representatives of the National People's Congress may be invited to participate in legislation investigations and researches carried out by the special committees and the working bodies of the Standing Committee."
VIII. Article 26 is renumbered as Article 28, with one paragraph added thereto as Paragraph 2 which reads: "Where a bill is to be deliberated at the session of the Standing Committee, the related representatives of the National People's Congress shall be invited to attend the session."
IX. Article 28 is renumbered as Article 30, which is revised to read: "A bill that has been placed on the agenda of the session of the Standing Committee may be brought to a vote after deliberation at two sessions of the Standing Committee if a general consensus has been reached; or may be brought to vote after deliberation at one session of the Standing Committee if the matters to be adjusted are single or only a part of the contents of a bill is revised, and a general consensus has been reached."
X. Article 31 is renumbered as Article 33, which is revised to read: "A bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the Standing Committee will be deliberated uniformly by the Law Committee based on the deliberation opinions expressed by the members of the Standing Committee and the relevant special committees as well as the comments of all parties. The Law Committee shall submit a report on revision or report on deliberation results and the revised bill, which shall contain explanations to different important opinions. Where the deliberation opinions of the relevant special committees are not adopted, the feedback shall be provided to the relevant special committees.
"Where a bill is to be deliberated by the Law Committee, members of the relevant special committees shall be invited to attend the session to voice their opinions."
XI. Article 34 is renumbered as Article 36, with two paragraphs added thereto as Paragraph 2 and Paragraph 3 which read respectively: "Where any issue concerning the bill is quite professional and requires the feasibility evaluation, the demonstration conference shall be held to collect opinions from various parties including relevant experts, the departments and representatives of the National People's Congress.
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