A top central government official has pledged better protection
of citizens' rights to sue officials and official actions deemed
harmful to their lawful interests.
The system that facilitates citizens' legal actions against
officials and government offices is known in China as the
administrative trial system, based on the nation's Administrative
Procedure Law.
China will become more effective in preventing local officials'
influence on the administrative trials, Luo Gan, a member of the Standing Committee of
the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, told a high-level
legal conference yesterday in Beijing.?
He also said the central government would ensure courts wield
greater independent trial power to overcome any protectionist
attempts by regional and industrial bureaucracies.
Addressing the same conference, Hua Jianmin, secretary-general of the State Council, called for stricter enforcement
of the existing law. All chief officials of government agencies are
required to be present in court whenever their agencies are accused
in administrative trials, but many often send representatives in
their stead.
Hua also pledged measures to facilitate administrative
reconsideration and receive public supervisions.
Figures from the Supreme People's Court (SPC)?show that from 2000 to 2006, Chinese
courts handled nearly 639,736 administrative trials. In addition,
in 34,581 cases administrative compensation was awarded to citizen
victims.
However, as?Luo pointed out, new strains in social
relations were unavoidable in a rapidly developing country like
China.
Citizens have increasingly been taking legal action against
officials and government agencies, especially in the areas of urban
and rural land acquisition and relocation programs, rural levies,
corporate restructuring, labor relations, social security issues,
and protection of natural resources, justice officials said.
Citizens were first able to sue officials in 1982, under the
country's provisional civil procedural law.
The Administrative Procedure Law was enacted in April 1989 and
took effect in October 1990, allowing citizens to more effectively,
legally challenge officials and government agencies for violations
of their rights and interests.
This was followed by China's Law on State Compensation in 1994,
defining the government's compensation terms to citizens;?the
Law on Administrative Punishment in 1996, defining punishment on
officials or government offices for violations of citizens' rights
and interests; and the Administrative Reconsideration Law in 1999,
defining terms for overturning incorrect administrative
decisions.
(China Daily March 28, 2007)