Yang Zixuan, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), said the goal to shape up a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics will be attained before the term of the Ninth NPC expires in 2003, as was promised by NPC Standing Committee Chairman Li Peng last week.
This legal system should have the following six features, according to Yang, who is also a member of the NPC's Law Committee.
First, it should have Chinese characteristics, that is, it should conform with conditions in China.
Second, it should be socialist in nature, that is, it should embody the basic requirements of socialism.
Third, it should be a multi-layered system; that is, the system should contain not only the Constitution and other laws but also administrative regulations, and local laws and regulations.
Fourth, it should be comprehensive, covering all spheres of social activities, including the market, macroeconomic controls, social security, administration, science, education, national defense, crime fighting and legal proceedings, among others.
Fifth, this system should be composed of standardized documents. And
Sixth, it should be an organic whole. Laws and regulations in the system must not contradictory to one another.
A professor with the Law School of Beijing University, Yang said that to establish this legal system, it is important to proceed from China's actual conditions rather than copy the legal systems of other countries.
(People’s Daily 03/12/2001)
