Lawyer Qiao Zhanxiang lost his case against the Ministry of
Railways last year, but the lawsuit resulted in a public hearing on
the railway transport charges for 2002.
This is but only one of the more than 100,000 administrative
lawsuits that took place in 2001 and the successful rate for common
people ranged from 30-35 percent as against a global average of 10
percent.
China promulgated the Administrative Procedure law in 1991. Since
then 730,000 cases have been brought before the people's courts in
the country, with government departments as the defendants.
According to the law, citizens can sue the governments at all
levels and their departments and they can win the cases," said
Jiang Bixin, Chief Judge of the Administrative Court of the Supreme
People's Court.
In
the early 1990s, the winning rate of the common people was around
40 percent and it has been steadied at 30-35 percent since then,
according to the Supreme Court statistics.
Most of the administrative cases involved public security,
resources disputes, requisition of land and resettlement of
displaced people. Now administrative cases concerning economic
affairs are on the rise, especially those concerning the
standardization of economic order.
There are less such cases in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong and
the western part of the country than in the middle developed
provinces and regions as in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, the
government behavior is more standard while in the western part of
the country, the people have a weaker sense of defending their own
rights.
Another reason for the surge of administrative legal action is the
extension of the scope for taking legal action against
administrative departments by such laws as trademark law and the
patent law. In addition, the Supreme People's Courts also lifted
the restrictions on the qualifications of plaintiffs, allowing
those who have immediate interests with the administrative organs
to take legal action.
"People used to be afraid of the government or were unwilling to
sue the government; others resorted to revenge or often went to
extremes to seek justice," he said. "But today, more and more
people know that they have to turn to law to defend their
legitimate rights and interests."
Supreme People's Court President Xiao Yang said on many occasions
that in the post-WTO era and as China is moving toward the rule of
law, government bodies and ordinary citizens are sure to be truly
equal before the law.
(China
Daily March 15, 2002)