Rule Of Law In China: Progress And Problems. Lin Li

agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, transportation, urban and rural development, and marine industries and fisheries. Cross-departmental coordination in law enforcement may be adopted where conditions allow”. (2) “We must improve regulation of administrative enforcement of law at the municipal and county levels, strengthening unified leadership and coordination. We must develop a sound system of administrative compulsion and refine the system of law enforcement by urban management officers”. (3) “We must strictly implement certification and credentials systems for those working in administrative law enforcement… We must strictly implement a system in which law enforcement officers do not collect the fines they issue, and the management of revenue and expenditures is separated”. (4) “We must improve the mechanism for linking administrative law enforcement with the administration of criminal justice, better define standards and procedures for case referrals, and establish a system for sharing information, releasing updates on cases, and referring cases between agencies charged with administrative enforcement of law, public security agencies, procuratorates, and courts. We must be firm in eliminating the phenomena of failing to refer cases when necessary, creating difficulties for their referral, and issuing administrative penalties instead of criminal sentences, so as to ensure that administrative punishment is well coordinated with criminal punishment”.

      Fifth, ensuring that law is enforced in a strict, standardized, impartial, and civil manner. (1) “We need to improve the procedures for law enforcement and establish a record keeping system to document the whole process of law enforcement. We need to clarify specific procedures with a focus on such aspects of law enforcement as administrative licensing, administrative punishment, administrative compulsion, administrative revenue collection, the charging of administrative fees, and administrative inspection. We must strictly implement a system by which major decisions on law enforcement are reviewed to check their consistency with the law”. “We must establish a sound system of baselines for administrative discretionary powers … We must strengthen the application of information technology and information sharing in administrative law enforcement, and make law enforcement activities more efficient and standardized”. “We must fully implement the accountability system for administrative enforcement of law … We must strengthen supervision of law enforcement”, and “punish instances of corruption in law enforcement”.

      Sixth, strengthening checks on administrative powers and supervision over the exercise of these powers. (1) In strengthening checks on administrative powers, we need to focus on strengthening checks on government powers. “We need to improve supervision among governments at different levels as well as specialized supervision, improve supervision of governments by those at the next level up, and establish a permanent system of supervision. We need to improve remedial and accountability mechanisms”. (2) “We must improve the auditing system, and make sure that supervision is exercised through independent auditing and in accordance with the law … Leadership of auditing agencies by those at the next level up needs to be strengthened. Efforts need to be made to explore unified management of human, financial, and material resources of local auditing agencies below the provincial level. We need to increase the level of professionalism in auditing”.

      Seventh, building transparency into the work of the government across the board. (1) Decision-making, implementation, management, services, and outcomes are all open to the public. Special emphasis needs to be placed on making information on government budgets, the allocation of public resources, the approval and implementation of major construction projects, and the development of public interest projects available to the public. (2) A public notice system for administrative enforcement of law needs to be put into effect. “We need to press ahead with increasing the use of information technology in making government work more transparent”.

      1.2.4.4. Part 4: Ensuring judicial impartiality and improving judicial credibility. This mainly includes: First, innovation of concept and basic ideas—Justice is the lifeblood of the rule of law. Judicial justice encourages social justice, while judicial injustice cripples it. We must improve the system for managing the judiciary and the mechanisms for exercising judicial powers, standardize judicial behavior, tighten supervision over judicial activities, and make every effort to ensure that the people feel justice is served in every case.

      Second, improving the system for ensuring the law-based, independent, and impartial exercise of judicial and procuratorial powers. (1) “We need to develop record keeping, reporting, and accountability systems to deal with officials intervening in judicial activities, including the handling of specific cases”. (2) “We must improve the systems whereby administrative agencies appear and defend themselves in court in accordance with the law, support the court in handling cases filed against them, and respect and carry out effective judgments made by the court. We need to improve legal provisions on punishing illegal activities such as acting to impede judicial bodies’ performance of their duties in accordance with the law, refusal to carry out effective judgments or rulings, and contempt of court”. (3) A sound mechanism to protect those working in the judiciary in the performance of their statutory duties needs to be established.

      Third, improving the allocation of judicial functions and powers. (1) “We need to improve the systems and mechanisms by which public security organs, procuratorates, and courts as well as administrative agencies for justice each perform their respective functions while investigative, procuratorial, judicial, and enforcement powers complement and constrain each other”. (2) “We must improve the judicial system, and carry out pilot structural reforms to separate judicial powers from powers of enforcement. We need to improve and unify the systems by which penal decisions are enforced. We need to reform the systems for managing human, financial, and material resources of judicial bodies, and explore ways to separate the judicial and procuratorial powers of courts and procuratorates from their powers to manage judicial administrative affairs”. (3) Circuit courts need to be established under the Supreme People’s Court. “We need to explore the establishment of people’s courts and people’s procuratorates whose jurisdiction extends beyond administrative divisions to handle trans-regional cases… We need to improve the systems and mechanisms for dealing with administrative litigation”. (4) “We must reform the system by which courts accept cases, replacing the system within which cases to be filed are first reviewed with a system by which these cases are instead registered. The courts must take on all cases that are legally mandated to be accepted, thus safeguarding the right of the people to litigate”. (5) “We need to improve the system concerning the different levels of trials. The court of first instance should focus on the finding of facts and the application of law, and the court of second instance should focus on settling legal disputes over facts and ensure that the second instance is the final instance. Retrials should concentrate on correcting erroneous rulings and maintaining the authority of rulings. If during its duties a procuratorate discovers that an administrative body has exercised its functions and powers in a way contrary to the law or has neglected its duties, the procuratorate should urge it to rectify such practices. We need to search for ways of building a system for the filing of public interest litigation by procuratorates”. (6) “We must clarify the powers of every level within judicial bodies and build more robust mechanisms for internal supervision and restraints on power. Personnel within a judicial body must not intervene in each other’s handling of cases, which is a violation of regulations; record keeping and accountability systems need to be established to deal with such interventions. We need to improve the accountability system for principal judges, collegial benches, principal procurators, and principal investigating officers in their handling of cases in order to make sure that those in charge take responsibility”.

      Fourth, pressing ahead with the strict administration of justice. (1) “We need to strengthen and standardize judicial interpretation and case guidance, and unify the standards for the application of law”. (2) “We must implement reform of the litigation system focusing on court proceedings”. (3) “We need to clarify the duties, work procedures, and standards for those working in the judiciary, and adopt a lifelong accountability system for holding judicial officers to account for the quality of their handling of cases and a system for retroactively holding them accountable for erroneous rulings”.

      Fifth, guaranteeing the people’s participation in the administration of justice. (1) “We need to improve the system of people’s assessors … Step by step, we need to see to it that people’s