to rebuild the Ministry of Justice on the basis of sound preparations “so as to adapt to the needs of socialist legal construction and strengthen judicial and administrative work”.8 Following this, local judicial offices at all levels were established, and judicial and administrative work was restored.
The Criminal Procedure Law and the Organic Law of the People’s Court promulgated in July 1979 clearly stipulated that the defendant could entrust a lawyer to defend him. In early 1979, Hulan County, Heilongjiang Province (the northeast province of China) began to offer lawyers to undertake criminal defense work. Later, Beijing Municipality, Shanghai Municipality, as well as seven cities and counties including Daqing and Harbin of Heilongjiang Province and Bishan of Sichuan Province restored lawyer organizations and some lawyer practices were carried out. By October 1980, there had been bar associations in Henan, Shaanxi, and Shandong Provinces, and preparatory meeting or preparatory leading groups for bar associations had been set up in 17 provinces and municipalities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Gansu, etc. There were 381 legal advisory offices and more than 3,000 full-time lawyers nationwide. In August 1980, the 15th Session of the Fifth NPC discussed and approved the Provisional Regulations of Lawyers of the People’s Republic of China.9
In January 1980, the Central Committee resumed the Central Political and Legal Committee.
In July 1982, China Law Society was established. Chinese Journal of Law, Democracy and Legal System, Jurisprudence Daily, and other major law journals have been resumed or started.
In June 1983, the State Council submitted a proposal to the First Session of the Sixth NPC to set up the Ministry of State Security so as to strengthen its leadership in national security work. On July 1, 1983, the founding conference of the Ministry of State Security was held. The Ministry of National Security consisted of the former Ministry of Central Investigation, the Political Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, some units of the United Front Work Department of CPC Central Committee, and some units of the State Commission of Science and Technology for National Defense Industry.
1.2.2.Development in the rule of law: From the promulgation of the Constitution in 1982 to the holding of the 14th National Congress of the CPC in 1992. The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee removed mental obstacles for legal construction in the new period, and thoroughly modifying the Constitution became the top priority. In September 1980, the NPC set up the Committee for the Modification of the Constitution, with Ye Jianying as its chairman. Based on a fully expanding democracy, the Fifth Session of the Fifth NPC passed a new constitution on December 12, 1982. The 1982 Constitution not only inherited basic principles of the 1954 Constitution but also made important reforms and improvements in consideration of the needs of socialist construction in the new period. For instance, the preamble to the Constitution and Article 5 of the general program established principles of the socialist rule of law and stipulated the fundamental status and constitutional protection system to safeguard the unity and dignity of the rule of law. The Constitution strengthened the construction of the permanent offices of the supreme organs of state power and expanded the functions and powers of the NPC Standing Committee, thus intensifying the legislative and supervisory functions of the NPC. The Constitution strengthened the establishment of local power, made it a rule that people’s congresses above county level set up standing committees, and endowed them with the obligations to guarantee the Constitution, with laws being implemented within their own administrative areas. The People’s congresses and their Standing Committees in provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities have the right to formulate local regulations and the obligation to supervise governments, people’s courts, and people’s procuratorates. The Constitution made new supplements and clearer stipulations on basic civil rights and strengthened protection measures. Besides, the Constitution carried out many other reforms on strengthening state power construction and improving state systems.
As an important milestone in the history of the rule of law in New China, the 1982 Constitution laid the foundation for and greatly promoted and guaranteed the legal construction in the new period.
Article 31 of the 1982 Constitution clearly stipulated that “China shall set up special administrative regions when it is necessary. The systems adopted within special administrative regions shall be determined by NPC according to practical situations and in the form of law”. In December 1984, China and Britain signed the Joint Communique on Hong Kong Issue, which confirmed that the People’s Republic of China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong, thus realizing the wish shared by all the Chinese people of regaining the sovereignty of Hong Kong over the past 100 years.10 On April 10, 1985, the Third Session of the Sixth NPC officially approved Sino-British Joint Communique and decided to found the Committee for Drafting Basic Laws for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. On April 4, 1990, the Third Session of the Seventh NPC passed Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. On April 13, 1987, the Chinese and Portuguese governments signed Joint Communique on the Macao Issue, and the drafting of Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China was put on the agenda. On April 13, 1988, the First Session of the Seventh NPC passed Decisions on the Establishment of the Committee for Drafting Basic Laws for the Macao Special Administrative Region. On March 31, 1993, the First Session of the Eighth NPC passed Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. The issuing of Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China and Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China was a great event in China’s national life and legal construction. It established the principle of “one country, two systems” in the form of basic law and was the pioneering work in the legislative history of China. It also established the fundamental system after the reunification of Hong Kong and Macao with the code that Hong Kong and Macao must follow in all aspects of their life in the future, and provided an important legal guarantee for Hong Kong and Macao’s economic development and political stability.
In February 1988, the CPC Central Committee officially proposed the amendment of the 1982 Constitution, acknowledged the legitimacy of the private-owned economy, and affirmed that land could be transferred in accordance with the law, because the economic system stipulated in Article 6 of the 1982 Constitution had a serious flaw—“The socialist economic system of the People’s Republic of China is based on the public ownership of the means of production, that is, ownership by the whole people and collective ownership by the working masses. Socialist public ownership eliminates the system that exploits people, and implements the principle of doing one’s best and allocating according to work”. This means that only the ownership by the whole people and the collective ownership of the working people are legitimate, and the Constitution only admits that the economy of the public ownership is lawful. In April 1988, the First Session of the Seventh NPC passed Amendment to the Constitution, stipulating that “The state allows private economy to exist and develop within the limits prescribed by law”, and that “land-use right can be transferred in accordance with the law”. Later on May 19, 1990, the State Council promulgated the Provisional Regulations on the Grant and Transfer of Use Rights of Urban State-owned Land (Decree No. 55) which became specific rules for the trade of land-use rights.
In November 1985, the 13th Session of the Standing Committee of the Sixth NPC passed the Resolution on the Popularization of Legal Knowledge among Citizens. And notable progress was made in legal popularization work, and people’s concept of the rule of law and legal awareness were significantly improved.
In this period, in order to guarantee that socialist modernization goes smoothly, the NPC and its Standing Committee focused on formulating economic laws in their legislative work, thus drawing up Economic Contract Law, Statistic Law, Environmental Protection Law (Trial), Marine Environmental Protection Law, Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, Law on Food Hygiene (Trial), and Traffic Safety Law at Sea, as well as approving the Regulations on Land Requisition for State Construction. In the meantime, to adapt to the needs of opening-up to the outside world and to facilitate the
