Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2023)
Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2023)
Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2023)
Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No. 3
March 13, 2023
(Adopted at the Third Session of the 9th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on March 15, 2000; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China made at the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress on March 15, 2015; and amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China made at the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress on March 13, 2023)
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Laws
Section 1 Legislative Powers
Section 2 Legislative Process of the National People's Congress
Section 3 Legislative Process of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
Section 4 Interpretation of the Law
Section 5 Other Provisions
Chapter III Administrative Regulations
Chapter IV Local Regulations, Autonomous Regulations and Special Regulations and Rules
Section 1 Local Regulations, Autonomous Regulations and Special Regulations
Section 2 Rules
Chapter V Application of Law and Filing Review
Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 The Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China (this "Law") is enacted in accordance with the Constitution to standardize legislative activities, improve the nation's legislative system, enhance the quality of legislation, perfect the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, give play to the leading and driving role of lawmaking, safeguard and advance socialist democracy, comprehensively promote the rule of law in governance , and build a socialist country governed by the rule of law.
Article 2 This Law shall govern the enactment, amendment, and repeal of any law, administrative regulation, local regulation, autonomous regulation, or separate regulation.
The enactment, amendment, and repeal of departmental rules of the State Council and rules of local governments shall be carried out in accordance with the applicable provisions of this Law.
Article 3 Legislation shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and be guided by Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, to promote the construction of the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, and ensure the comprehensive development of a socialist modern country under the track of the rule of law.
Article 4 Legislation shall adhere to the central task of economic development, continue to reform and open up, and adopt the new vision for development, to ensure the advancement the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts guided by a Chinese path to modernization.
Article 5 Legislation shall conform to the provisions, principles, and spirit of the Constitution, follow statutory authority and procedures, prioritize the overall national interest, and uphold the uniformity, dignity, and authority of the socialist legal system.
Article 6 Legislation shall uphold and advance the whole-process people's democracy, respect and protect human rights, and safeguard and promote social fairness and justice.
Legislation shall reflect the will of the people, foster socialist democracy, maintain openness of the legislative process, and ensure that the public can participate in legislative activities through a variety of channels.
Article 7 Legislation shall be grounded in reality, serving the needs of economic and social development and the comprehensive deepening of reforms, and it shall prescribe the rights and obligations of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations, as well as the powers and duties of state authorities, in a scientific and reasonable manner.
Legal norms shall be clear, specific, targeted, and enforceable.
Article 8 Legislation shall promote and carry forward the core socialist values, adhere to the combination of rule of law and rule of virtue, foster a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, and promote spiritual advancement of socialism.
Article 9 Legislation shall meet the needs of reform, uphold the unity of advancing reforms under the rule of law and improving the rule of law during reforms. It shall lead, advance, regulate, and safeguard the relevant reforms, and give play to the important role of the rule of law in modernizing China's system and capacity for governance.
Chapter II Laws
Section 1 Legislative Powers
Article 10 The National People's Congress and its Standing Committee shall exercise the legislative power of the State in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
The National People's Congress shall have the power to enact and amend criminal and civil laws, basic laws governing state organs, and other basic laws.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress shall have the power to enact and amend laws other than those that must be enacted by the National People's Congress and to make partial amendments and supplements to laws enacted by the National People's Congress when the National People's Congress is not in session, provided that such amendments and supplements do not contravene the basic principles of those laws.
The National People's Congress may authorize its Standing Committee to enact relevant laws.
Article 11 Only laws may be enacted on matters relating to:
(1) the state sovereignty;
(2) the establishment, organization, functions and powers of the various levels of people's congresses, people's governments, supervision commissions, people's courts, and people's procuratorates;
(3) the system of ethnic regional autonomy, the systems of special administrative regions, and the system of grassroots self-governance;
(4) crimes and criminal punishment;
(5) the deprivation of political rights of citizens, or compulsory measures and penalties that restrict personal liberty;
(6) basic systems for taxation such as the establishment of taxes, determination of tax rates, and the collection and management of taxes;
(7) the expropriation and requisition of non-state-owned assets;
(8) basic systems of civil law;
(9) basic economic systems, and basic fiscal, customs, financial, and foreign trade systems;
(10) litigation systems and basis arbitration systems; and
(11) other matters on which the laws must be enacted by the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee.
Article 12 Where no law has been enacted on matters provided for in Article 11 of this Law, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee have the power to make a decision, authorizing the State Council to first enact administrative regulations on some of those matters according to actual needs, with the exception of matters involving crime and criminal punishments, deprivation of citizens' political rights and compulsory measures and punishments that restrict physical liberty, and the judicial system.
Article 13 An authorization decision shall specify matters such as the purpose, subject matter, scope, and duration of the authorization, as well as the principles that the authorized agency shall follow in implementing the authorization decision.
The duration of an authorization shall not exceed five years, unless otherwise provided by the authorization decision.
The authorized agency shall report the implementation of the authorization decision to the enabling agency six months before the expiry of the authorization and shall give its opinions on the need to enact relevant laws. The agency may provide 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 14 When, as tested by practice, the conditions are ripe for enacting a law on the subject matter that has been legislatively authorized, the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee shall promptly proceed to enact the law. Once the law is enacted, the authorization for that legislative matter shall be concluded.
Article 15 Authorized agencies shall strictly follow the authorization decisions in exercising the authorized powers.
Authorized agencies shall not transfer authorized powers to other agencies.
Article 16 The National People's Congress and its Standing Committee may, as needed for reform and development, decide to authorize temporary adjustments to, or temporary suspension of, the application of some provisions of laws on specific matters within the prescribed time period and scope.
For matters with respect to which the application of some provisions of laws has been temporarily adjusted or temporarily suspended, where they have proven to be feasible in practice, the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee shall promptly amend the relevant laws; where the conditions for amending the laws are not yet ripe, the duration of the authorization may be extended, or the application of the relevant provisions of laws may be resumed.
Section 2 Legislative Procedure of the National People's Congress
Article 17 The Presidium of the National People's Congress may propose bills to the National People's Congress for deliberation by a session of the National People's Congress.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, the National Supervisory Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and various special committees of the National People's Congress may propose bills to the National People's Congress, and such bills shall be placed on the agenda of a session as decided by the Presidium.
Article 18 A delegation, or at least 30 delegates acting jointly, may propose a bill to the National People's Congress, and the Presidium shall decide whether to place such bill on the agenda of a session, or may refer it to the relevant special committee for deliberation, and such special committee shall suggest whether such bill shall be placed on the agenda of a session, whereupon the Presidium shall decide whether to place the bill on the agenda of a session.
In the course of deliberation on the bill, the special committee may invite the bill sponsors to attend the session and offer comments and suggestions.
Article 19 In case where the National People's Congress is not in session, a bill proposed to the National People's Congress may be initially submitted to the Standing Committee, which, after having deliberated the bill in accordance with the relevant procedures set forth in Section 3 of Chapter II of this Law, shall decide to submit it to the National People's Congress for deliberation, whereupon the Standing Committee or the bill sponsor shall make statements to the plenary session.
In deliberating a bill pursuant to the preceding paragraph, the Standing Committee shall solicit comments from the representatives of the National People's Congress through various ways and provide the feedback on the relevant situations. The special committees and the working bodies of the Standing Committee may invite relevant representatives of the National People's Congress to participate in legislation investigations and research activities they undertake.
Article 20 In case where the Standing Committee has decided to submit a bill to the upcoming session of the National People's Congress for deliberation, the bill in draft law form shall be distributed to the delegates one month prior to the commencement of the session, and may at the appropriate time organize the delegates to study and discuss the bill and solicit their comments.
Article 21 In case where a bill has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress, the plenary session shall, after hearing the statements of the bill sponsor, forward the bill to the delegations responsible for deliberation.
In the course of deliberation of the bill by the delegations, the bill sponsor shall send representatives to hear the comments and answer the questions.
In the course of deliberation of the bill by the delegations, relevant authorities or organizations shall send representatives to make statements to the delegations upon the request of the delegations.
Article 22 A bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress shall be deliberated upon by the relevant special committee, which shall then submit its comments to the Presidium for distribution to the session's delegates.
Article 23 For a bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress, the Constitution and Law Committee shall, on the basis of the deliberation opinions of the delegations and the relevant special committee, conduct a general deliberation on the bill, and afterwards shall submit to the Presidium a deliberation report and an amended draft law. The deliberation report shall include statements of constitutionality involved and major dissenting views, and after being deliberated and approved by the Presidium, shall be distributed to the session's delegates.
Article 24 For a bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress, the executive chairman of the Presidium may, where necessary, convene a meeting of delegation leaders to hear the deliberation opinions of all delegations on key issues of the bill, hold discussions, and report the discussions and suggestions concerning key issues to the Presidium.
The executive chairman of the Presidium may also call a session of the relevant delegates selected by the delegations to discuss important special issues contained in the bill, and shall report its discussions and suggestions to the Presidium.
Article 25 If a bill sponsor requests the withdrawal of a bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress but has not yet been put to a vote, the bill sponsor shall explain his/her request, once the Presidium has given consent to the request and reported its decision to the plenary session, then the deliberation over the bill shall be terminated accordingly.
Article 26 If, during the deliberation of a bill, there are key issues that need to be studied further, the Standing Committee may, upon the suggestion of the Presidium and the consent of the plenary session, be authorized to conduct further deliberations based on the opinions of the delegates, make a decision and report its decision to the next session of the National People's Congress. The Standing Committee may also be authorized to hold further deliberations according to the opinions of the delegates, and put forward an amendment plan for deliberation and decision by the next session of the National People's Congress.
Article 27 After the deliberation by the delegations, the amended draft law shall be further amended by the Constitution and Law Committee based on the deliberation opinions of the delegations; the Constitution and Law Committee then shall present a version of the draft law, which is to be submitted by the Presidium to a plenary meeting for adoption based on simple majority vote of all delegates.
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Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No. 3
March 13, 2023
(Adopted at the Third Session of the 9th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on March 15, 2000; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China made at the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress on March 15, 2015; and amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China made at the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress on March 13, 2023)
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Laws
Section 1 Legislative Powers
Section 2 Legislative Process of the National People's Congress
Section 3 Legislative Process of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
Section 4 Interpretation of the Law
Section 5 Other Provisions
Chapter III Administrative Regulations
Chapter IV Local Regulations, Autonomous Regulations and Special Regulations and Rules
Section 1 Local Regulations, Autonomous Regulations and Special Regulations
Section 2 Rules
Chapter V Application of Law and Filing Review
Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 The Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China (this "Law") is enacted in accordance with the Constitution to standardize legislative activities, improve the nation's legislative system, enhance the quality of legislation, perfect the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, give play to the leading and driving role of lawmaking, safeguard and advance socialist democracy, comprehensively promote the rule of law in governance , and build a socialist country governed by the rule of law.
Article 2 This Law shall govern the enactment, amendment, and repeal of any law, administrative regulation, local regulation, autonomous regulation, or separate regulation.
The enactment, amendment, and repeal of departmental rules of the State Council and rules of local governments shall be carried out in accordance with the applicable provisions of this Law.
Article 3 Legislation shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and be guided by Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, to promote the construction of the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, and ensure the comprehensive development of a socialist modern country under the track of the rule of law.
Article 4 Legislation shall adhere to the central task of economic development, continue to reform and open up, and adopt the new vision for development, to ensure the advancement the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts guided by a Chinese path to modernization.
Article 5 Legislation shall conform to the provisions, principles, and spirit of the Constitution, follow statutory authority and procedures, prioritize the overall national interest, and uphold the uniformity, dignity, and authority of the socialist legal system.
Article 6 Legislation shall uphold and advance the whole-process people's democracy, respect and protect human rights, and safeguard and promote social fairness and justice.
Legislation shall reflect the will of the people, foster socialist democracy, maintain openness of the legislative process, and ensure that the public can participate in legislative activities through a variety of channels.
Article 7 Legislation shall be grounded in reality, serving the needs of economic and social development and the comprehensive deepening of reforms, and it shall prescribe the rights and obligations of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations, as well as the powers and duties of state authorities, in a scientific and reasonable manner.
Legal norms shall be clear, specific, targeted, and enforceable.
Article 8 Legislation shall promote and carry forward the core socialist values, adhere to the combination of rule of law and rule of virtue, foster a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, and promote spiritual advancement of socialism.
Article 9 Legislation shall meet the needs of reform, uphold the unity of advancing reforms under the rule of law and improving the rule of law during reforms. It shall lead, advance, regulate, and safeguard the relevant reforms, and give play to the important role of the rule of law in modernizing China's system and capacity for governance.
Chapter II Laws
Section 1 Legislative Powers
Article 10 The National People's Congress and its Standing Committee shall exercise the legislative power of the State in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
The National People's Congress shall have the power to enact and amend criminal and civil laws, basic laws governing state organs, and other basic laws.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress shall have the power to enact and amend laws other than those that must be enacted by the National People's Congress and to make partial amendments and supplements to laws enacted by the National People's Congress when the National People's Congress is not in session, provided that such amendments and supplements do not contravene the basic principles of those laws.
The National People's Congress may authorize its Standing Committee to enact relevant laws.
Article 11 Only laws may be enacted on matters relating to:
(1) the state sovereignty;
(2) the establishment, organization, functions and powers of the various levels of people's congresses, people's governments, supervision commissions, people's courts, and people's procuratorates;
(3) the system of ethnic regional autonomy, the systems of special administrative regions, and the system of grassroots self-governance;
(4) crimes and criminal punishment;
(5) the deprivation of political rights of citizens, or compulsory measures and penalties that restrict personal liberty;
(6) basic systems for taxation such as the establishment of taxes, determination of tax rates, and the collection and management of taxes;
(7) the expropriation and requisition of non-state-owned assets;
(8) basic systems of civil law;
(9) basic economic systems, and basic fiscal, customs, financial, and foreign trade systems;
(10) litigation systems and basis arbitration systems; and
(11) other matters on which the laws must be enacted by the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee.
Article 12 Where no law has been enacted on matters provided for in Article 11 of this Law, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee have the power to make a decision, authorizing the State Council to first enact administrative regulations on some of those matters according to actual needs, with the exception of matters involving crime and criminal punishments, deprivation of citizens' political rights and compulsory measures and punishments that restrict physical liberty, and the judicial system.
Article 13 An authorization decision shall specify matters such as the purpose, subject matter, scope, and duration of the authorization, as well as the principles that the authorized agency shall follow in implementing the authorization decision.
The duration of an authorization shall not exceed five years, unless otherwise provided by the authorization decision.
The authorized agency shall report the implementation of the authorization decision to the enabling agency six months before the expiry of the authorization and shall give its opinions on the need to enact relevant laws. The agency may provide 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 14 When, as tested by practice, the conditions are ripe for enacting a law on the subject matter that has been legislatively authorized, the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee shall promptly proceed to enact the law. Once the law is enacted, the authorization for that legislative matter shall be concluded.
Article 15 Authorized agencies shall strictly follow the authorization decisions in exercising the authorized powers.
Authorized agencies shall not transfer authorized powers to other agencies.
Article 16 The National People's Congress and its Standing Committee may, as needed for reform and development, decide to authorize temporary adjustments to, or temporary suspension of, the application of some provisions of laws on specific matters within the prescribed time period and scope.
For matters with respect to which the application of some provisions of laws has been temporarily adjusted or temporarily suspended, where they have proven to be feasible in practice, the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee shall promptly amend the relevant laws; where the conditions for amending the laws are not yet ripe, the duration of the authorization may be extended, or the application of the relevant provisions of laws may be resumed.
Section 2 Legislative Procedure of the National People's Congress
Article 17 The Presidium of the National People's Congress may propose bills to the National People's Congress for deliberation by a session of the National People's Congress.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, the National Supervisory Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and various special committees of the National People's Congress may propose bills to the National People's Congress, and such bills shall be placed on the agenda of a session as decided by the Presidium.
Article 18 A delegation, or at least 30 delegates acting jointly, may propose a bill to the National People's Congress, and the Presidium shall decide whether to place such bill on the agenda of a session, or may refer it to the relevant special committee for deliberation, and such special committee shall suggest whether such bill shall be placed on the agenda of a session, whereupon the Presidium shall decide whether to place the bill on the agenda of a session.
In the course of deliberation on the bill, the special committee may invite the bill sponsors to attend the session and offer comments and suggestions.
Article 19 In case where the National People's Congress is not in session, a bill proposed to the National People's Congress may be initially submitted to the Standing Committee, which, after having deliberated the bill in accordance with the relevant procedures set forth in Section 3 of Chapter II of this Law, shall decide to submit it to the National People's Congress for deliberation, whereupon the Standing Committee or the bill sponsor shall make statements to the plenary session.
In deliberating a bill pursuant to the preceding paragraph, the Standing Committee shall solicit comments from the representatives of the National People's Congress through various ways and provide the feedback on the relevant situations. The special committees and the working bodies of the Standing Committee may invite relevant representatives of the National People's Congress to participate in legislation investigations and research activities they undertake.
Article 20 In case where the Standing Committee has decided to submit a bill to the upcoming session of the National People's Congress for deliberation, the bill in draft law form shall be distributed to the delegates one month prior to the commencement of the session, and may at the appropriate time organize the delegates to study and discuss the bill and solicit their comments.
Article 21 In case where a bill has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress, the plenary session shall, after hearing the statements of the bill sponsor, forward the bill to the delegations responsible for deliberation.
In the course of deliberation of the bill by the delegations, the bill sponsor shall send representatives to hear the comments and answer the questions.
In the course of deliberation of the bill by the delegations, relevant authorities or organizations shall send representatives to make statements to the delegations upon the request of the delegations.
Article 22 A bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress shall be deliberated upon by the relevant special committee, which shall then submit its comments to the Presidium for distribution to the session's delegates.
Article 23 For a bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress, the Constitution and Law Committee shall, on the basis of the deliberation opinions of the delegations and the relevant special committee, conduct a general deliberation on the bill, and afterwards shall submit to the Presidium a deliberation report and an amended draft law. The deliberation report shall include statements of constitutionality involved and major dissenting views, and after being deliberated and approved by the Presidium, shall be distributed to the session's delegates.
Article 24 For a bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress, the executive chairman of the Presidium may, where necessary, convene a meeting of delegation leaders to hear the deliberation opinions of all delegations on key issues of the bill, hold discussions, and report the discussions and suggestions concerning key issues to the Presidium.
The executive chairman of the Presidium may also call a session of the relevant delegates selected by the delegations to discuss important special issues contained in the bill, and shall report its discussions and suggestions to the Presidium.
Article 25 If a bill sponsor requests the withdrawal of a bill that has been placed on the agenda of a session of the National People's Congress but has not yet been put to a vote, the bill sponsor shall explain his/her request, once the Presidium has given consent to the request and reported its decision to the plenary session, then the deliberation over the bill shall be terminated accordingly.
Article 26 If, during the deliberation of a bill, there are key issues that need to be studied further, the Standing Committee may, upon the suggestion of the Presidium and the consent of the plenary session, be authorized to conduct further deliberations based on the opinions of the delegates, make a decision and report its decision to the next session of the National People's Congress. The Standing Committee may also be authorized to hold further deliberations according to the opinions of the delegates, and put forward an amendment plan for deliberation and decision by the next session of the National People's Congress.
Article 27 After the deliberation by the delegations, the amended draft law shall be further amended by the Constitution and Law Committee based on the deliberation opinions of the delegations; the Constitution and Law Committee then shall present a version of the draft law, which is to be submitted by the Presidium to a plenary meeting for adoption based on simple majority vote of all delegates.
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