mission statement, roadmap, and timetable for achieving the phased goals of exercising full respect and protection of human rights in China.
The Resolution on Certain Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform in China, released in the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC, made a reform plan on how to perfect the judicial guarantee system for human rights in eight important aspects, including further standardizing the system of sealing-up, sequestrating, freezing, handling assets involved in legal cases, improving the mechanisms for preventing and correcting misstatements and the accountability system, gradually reducing the number of charges applying to death penalty, abolishing the system of reeducation through labor, improving the community correction system, perfecting the national judicial aid system, improving the legal aid system, and perfecting the lawyer system. These contents and requirements are important guidelines for continuously improving China’s judicial guarantee system for human rights.
2.4.Establishment of the Legal System with Chinese Characteristics as Scheduled
The formation of a socialist legal system to realize that there are laws to abide by is the key task for building the rule of law in China in the new era and is also one of the basic objectives of China’s legislation in the new era.
In 1982, for the first time, the work report of the Fifth Session of the Fifth NPC explicitly stated: “Legislation must proceed from the actual situation in our country and gradually establish an independent legal system with Chinese characteristics”.
In 1987, the report of the 13th CPC National Congress announced to the world: “China’s effort on building a socialist democracy and legal system is gradually developing. A socialist legal system based on the Constitution has been basically formed”.
In March 1988, the first session of the Seventh NPC pointed out: “The significant progress made in the legislative work in the past 5 years has made it no longer practicable for China to go on without laws for the political, economic, and social life of the country. There are laws to follow. The socialist legal system based on the Constitution has been initially formed”.
In 1993, in order to deepen the reform in economic structure, and establish a socialist market economy, the CPC Central Committee stated in its Decision on Some Issues Concerning the Establishment of a Socialist Market Economic Structure that “the objective of the legal system construction is to speed up the economic legislation, further improve the civil, commercial, and criminal laws, and laws on state institutions and administration management, and initially establish a legal system that is adapted to the socialist market economy by the end of this century”.
In 1994, the Second Session of the Eighth NPC Standing Committee proposed: “In accordance with the constitutional requirements, the Standing Committee takes economic legislation as its first task and strives to form a framework for a socialist market economic law system during the current tenure”.
In 1997, the work report of the Fifth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth NPC concluded: The Standing Committee “pays close attention to legislation and takes an important step towards establishing a legal system for the socialist market economy … The legal framework for the socialist market economy has begun to take shape”.
In 1997, while establishing the basic policy of governing the country according to law, the 15th National Congress of the CPC set the goal of completing the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics by the year 2010.
The formation of a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics spanning from 1997 to 2010 and the realization of this legislative goal in these 13 years can be broadly divided into three periods:
The period of the Ninth NPC (1998–2003), in which “the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics takes shape”. The “taking shape” here refers to the legal system, based on the Constitution, taking as the core the basic laws in civil, criminal, economic, administrative and litigation, and other aspects, with different levels of laws, administrative regulations, and local laws and regulations as the content, is initially formed. In March 2003, Li Peng pointed out in his work report: “On the basis of the previous work, all the legal branches that form the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics have been established with unremitting efforts. The major laws in each legal branch have been basically formulated; together with the administrative regulations formulated by the State Council and the local laws and regulations formulated by local people’s congresses, the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics with the Constitution as its core has been basically formed”.
The period of the 10th NPC (2003–2008), in which “a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics is basically formed”. The “basically formed” here refers to the formulation and revision of the supportive, legally urgent, and favorably conditioned laws in every legal branch on the basis of “taking shape”. In March 2008, Wu Bangguo pointed out: On the basis of the legislative work done by the NPC and its standing committees in the past few years and through the unremitting efforts of the 10th NPC and its standing committees, at present … all the legal branches that constitute the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristic are available now, and the basic and major laws and supporting regulations in each legal department have been formulated. The socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has been basically formed, and all aspects of the country’s economic, political, cultural and social life have basically had laws to abide by”.14
The period from the 11th NPC (2008–2013) to 2010, in which “a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics is established”. The “established” here means that the legal branches covering all aspects of social relations are well-established and the basic and major laws of various legal branches have been formulated. The corresponding administrative laws and local laws and regulations are relatively complete. And the legal system is in general scientific and consistent.
The socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics is an organic integration of the related laws of the Constitution, civil and commercial laws, administrative laws, economic laws, social laws, criminal laws, litigation and non-litigation procedural laws, and other legal branches, with the Constitution in the supreme place, the laws as the main body, and administrative and local regulations as the major components.
Since New China was founded, and particularly since the policy of reform and opening-up was introduced in 1978, China has made remarkable achievements in its legislation work. By the end of August 2011, the Chinese legislature had enacted 243 effective laws, including the current Constitution, over 720 administrative regulations, over 9,200 local regulations, and over 780 autonomous regulations and separate regulations had put in place a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics, which is based on the conditions and reality of China, meets the needs of reform, opening-up, and the socialist modernization drive, and reflects the will of the CPC and the Chinese people. This legal system, headed by the Constitution, with laws related to the Constitution, civil and commercial laws, and several other branches as the mainstay, and consisting of laws, administrative regulations, local regulations, and other tiers of legal provisions, ensures that there are laws to abide by in the economic, political, cultural, and social development, as well as in ecological civilization building.
The Chinese legal system is currently composed of three tiers and seven branches. As China’s fundamental law, the Constitution assumes the commanding position in the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. The Constitution has supreme legal authority in the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. All laws and administrative and local regulations must be made in accordance with the Constitution and follow its basic principles, and must not contravene the Constitution.
The Chinese legal system has three levels: First, the law, including basic laws and other laws formulated and explained by the NPC and its standing
