To comprehensively promote the rule of law requires a better "rule of law". The draft amendment to the legislative law, which has attracted much attention, was submitted to the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress for deliberation on the 8th. Judging from the draft, the number of cities enjoying local legislative power in China will increase from 49 to more than 280.
What is the intention of multiplying the local legislative power? How much benefit will this bring to local reform and development? Whether all localities can successfully undertake the substantive empowerment of legislation and how to prevent local "abuse of power" while decentralizing and expanding power are all important issues that all parties are highly concerned about and look forward to solving.
Why is it expanding greatly?
According to the current legislation law, the "big cities" with legislative power are divided into three categories: "cities where the people's governments of provinces and autonomous regions are located", "cities where special economic zones are located" and "big cities approved by the State Council", totaling 49.
This draft amendment adds a new category: 235 "other cities with districts". Adding the old and the new, all 284 districts and cities in China will enjoy local legislative power. In addition, Li Jianguo, vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), suggested giving local legislative power to Dongguan City, Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province and Jiayuguan City in Gansu Province when explaining the draft on the 8th.
"Calling for years has finally made a breakthrough!" Zheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress from Wenzhou, said. Since she was elected as the representative of the 12th National People's Congress, she proposed to approve Wenzhou as a "larger city" at the two sessions every year in order to obtain local legislative power.
She said that Wenzhou has always been a pioneer in reform and is famous for its genes that dare to fight and innovate. "Wenzhou people are brilliant when they meet the sun, and sprout when they meet the rain and dew, but they lack a little sunshine and rain." Without local legislative power, many reforms and explorations cannot be carried out, or they cannot be further promoted.
Not just Wenzhou. Many cities have made rapid progress in economic development and urban construction, but various problems and contradictions have also multiplied. Due to the lack of legislative power, it can only be replaced by "red-headed documents", but it is easy to cause new problems.
Ma Huaide, vice-president of China University of Political Science and Law and an expert in administrative law, said that with the deepening of reform and development, the local demand for legislation has become stronger and stronger. "Taking urban management as an example, urban management law enforcement agencies need to standardize their operations. There is no urban management legislation in the central government, and local governments have no authority to legislate if they want. Without legislation, they can't solve management problems. This constitutes a contradiction. "
How much bonus will be paid?
In terms of legislative power, Hefei is undoubtedly the envy of Wenzhou. The Regulations on Urban Management of Hefei, which came into effect at the beginning of this year, entered the public eye because it regulated collective fitness behaviors such as square dance.
As one of the previous 49 cities that had "early adopters" of local legislative power, up to now, the Hefei Municipal Government has formulated 68 regulations and requested the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress to formulate 45 local regulations. These legislations cover the development of private economy, environmental protection, public resource transactions, urban management and other aspects, creating a more reliable institutional "small environment" for reform and development.
Zhang Qingjun, deputy to the National People's Congress and mayor of Hefei, took the Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution in Chaohu Lake Basin as an example. This "optional action" in Hefei has standardized the behavior of governing the lake according to law and divided several levels of protected areas, such as
Within a certain range of first-class lakes and rivers entering the lake, new projects are strictly controlled except those under construction. "In addition, it has effectively avoided the capricious changes brought about by personnel changes and government changes, and has also had a negative impact on the government's administrative power.
Formed an effective constraint. "Zhang Qingjun said.
According to the draft, places with legislative power can formulate local laws and regulations on urban and rural construction and management, environmental protection and historical and cultural protection. Local regulations formulated by the original 49 large cities
Provisions, involving matters outside the above scope, continue to be effective. Experts believe that it is of great significance to give the city with districts legislative power, and some innovative measures and major projects can be accelerated through local legislation.
It can be found that while the number of cities endowed with local legislative power in the draft has doubled, its legislative scope is shrinking. "Laws, administrative regulations and provincial local regulations are becoming more and more complete, and it is necessary to appropriately limit the legislative authority of larger cities. This can avoid duplication of legislation and safeguard the unity of the national legal system. " Liang Ying, director of the research office of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) Law Committee, said.
Is the ability up to standard?
"The urgent task is to make good preparations for local legislative power." Chen Xiaohua, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the Standing Committee of Wenzhou Municipal People's Congress, said that the Standing Committee of Wenzhou Municipal People's Congress has set up a leading group for legislative preparation. She admits that Wenzhou urgently needs talents in this field, and legislative guidance and training also need to be strengthened.
After obtaining the authority, whether the quality of legislation is qualified and whether the legislative ability can match is also a serious problem before the legislative departments of various places. Some people are also worried about whether local governments will enact tourism laws, draconian laws or even "foreign laws".
This is not an alarmist. A few years ago, a province formulated and implemented the Regulations on Maternal and Infant Health Care, but this local regulation violated the content of "canceling compulsory premarital examination" in the marriage law of the superior law and was questioned by some experts as "ultra vires"
Law ". There have also been local regulations issued by prefecture-level cities, requiring all local real estate development enterprises to pay a "first elevator renewal fee" of not less than 250,000 yuan before selling their houses. If they don't pay, they will not issue pre-sale certificates, resulting in
Enterprises and the public have widely questioned.
Experts believe that legislation is a complicated task and requires a high professional level. Local authorities need to make up for the shortcomings in institutional setup and personnel capacity.
It should be pointed out that after empowerment, the progress of local legislation is not "one size fits all". The draft amendment stipulates that the standing committees of the people's congresses of provinces and autonomous regions should comprehensively consider the population of the cities with districts under their jurisdiction.
Quantity, geographical area, economic and social development, legislative needs, legislative ability and other factors, determine the specific steps and time for other cities with districts to start formulating local regulations, and report them to the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) and the State Council for the record.
How to prevent power abuse?
"When there is no legislative power, some local governments have produced a lot of' red-headed documents' to compete with the people for profits; Once you have the legislative power, isn't it more aboveboard and unscrupulous? " "If an illegal law enforcement only pollutes the water flow, then an illegal legislation pollutes the whole water source." ...
In view of the expansion of local legislative power, the concerns expressed by netizens point to a key problem: how to avoid local abuse of legislative power? So many cities have legislative power, how to effectively and timely supervise and review?
According to the draft, in addition to limiting the scope of local regulations, it is also stipulated that local government regulations should be formulated. Without the basis of laws, administrative regulations and local regulations, norms that damage the rights of citizens, legal persons and other organizations or increase their obligations may not be set. In addition, in the process of drafting administrative regulations, it is required to listen to the opinions of relevant organs, organizations, NPC deputies and citizens.
Public opinion will effectively restrict local legislative power. The draft calls for broadening the channels for citizens to participate in legislation in an orderly manner, conducting legislative consultations, and improving the system of legislative argumentation, hearing and public solicitation of opinions on draft laws.
Jiang Mingan, a law professor in Peking University, said that the National People's Congress and provincial people's congresses should establish special regulatory supervision and inspection institutions, and other special committees of the National People's Congress and the working bodies of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress can cooperate with the supervision and inspection; stand
The law shall clearly stipulate the time limit for examination institutions to accept examination applications from organs, groups, organizations and citizens, conduct examinations, and feed back examination results to examination applicants. Only in this way can the censorship system really play its role.
Function.