Geographical name management regulations ushered in overhaul

　　To curb "willful" naming of geographical names in accordance with the law

　　□ Trainee reporter Liu Ziwei

　　□ Our reporter Chen Lei

　　Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs website posted "Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Printing and Distributing the 2020 Legislative Work Plan of the Ministry of Civil Affairs", stating that it will advance legislation in key areas and do a good job in "relevant work on the revision of the administrative regulations on geographical names."

　　The "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" was promulgated in 1986, which provides a basic legal basis for the management of geographical names since my country's reform and opening up. However, after more than 30 years of social development, great changes have taken place in the situation and tasks faced by the management of geographical names, and some of the contents stipulated in the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" no longer meet the needs of the current work.

　　In the opinion of experts interviewed by reporters from the "Rules of Law Daily", the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" governing the naming and renaming of place names are too general in terms of administrative organs, procedures and entities, and they do not even provide for the supervision of naming rights and renaming rights. , Is not conducive to the rule of law in place name management.

　　The interviewed experts believe that timely amendments to the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" can straighten out the geographical name management system, expand the scope of geographical names management in accordance with the law, and give the competent authority the power of supervision in accordance with the law to curb the "willful" problem of name renaming.

　Wayward place names are common everywhere

　　Main reason for management irregularities

　　"How do you feel about the name of the community? It's actually a bit awkward." On the afternoon of August 8, in the Lincoln Park Community of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, Ms. Ma, a resident, carrying freshly bought vegetables, spoke to the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily Say, "Isn't Lincoln the name of an American president?"

　　Not far to the west in Lincoln Park, there is also a residential area on the banks of the Rhine. "But isn't the Rhine a river in Europe?" Ms. Ma said.

　　In addition to the names of exotic communities such as "Lincoln Park" and "Rhine River", there are also developers who give the communities irrelevant names.

　　Mr. Luo currently lives in the Lincoln Park community. His hometown is Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. The community where he lives is called "Olympic Garden". However, there are no sports venues and equipment in the community, "it has nothing to do with the Olympics."

　　In fact, in our country, place names are not standardized everywhere.

　　In December 2018, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Natural Resources and other ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Notice on Further Sorting Out Irregular Place Names", dividing the irregular place names into 4 categories, immediately exaggerated "big place names", and admiring foreigners. "Foreign place names", "strange place names" that are weird and difficult to understand or have a strong feudal color, and "heavy place names" with the same pronunciation.

　　Wang Jingbo, Dean of the Law and Government Research Institute of China University of Political Science and Law, told the reporter of Rule of Law Daily that a place name is a proper name given to a specific area or a specific building in terms of physical geography or human geography. It not only carries historical traditions and humanistic feelings, It is also closely related to the development of modernization construction such as construction planning, surveying and mapping geographic information, public security and national security.

　　Wu Gengyou, an associate professor at the School of Law of Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, said in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that irregular place names mainly refer to place names named without authorization and place names that violate the technical norms of place name naming such as "big, foreign, strange, heavy". Among them, the place names of "big, foreign, strange, heavy" are relatively prominent.

　　Irregular place names need to be regulated in accordance with the law, based on the current "Regulations on Place Names Administration"-promulgated by the State Council in 1986 and has been implemented for more than 30 years.

　　On July 30, the Ministry of Civil Affairs website issued the "Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Printing and Distributing the 2020 Legislative Work Plan of the Ministry of Civil Affairs". One of the specific arrangements for the legislative work plan this year is to amend the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" (continue to cooperate with the judicial Ministry review).

　　Zhu Lijia, a professor in the Public Administration Department of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National School of Administration), told the reporter of Rule of Law Daily that with the rapid development of China’s economy and society and the advent of the digital age, place names are very important to everyone. The "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" means that there are clearer norms to follow when naming and renaming place names.

Place name management is not impossible

　　Absence of naming rights renaming rights supervision

　　In January 2014, the State Council issued the "Notice on Launching the Second National Geographical Names Census", and decided to launch the second national Geographical Names Census. A few months later, the press conference of the second national place-name census proposed to rectify the chaos of place names "big, foreign, strange, strange, and heavy".

　　In July 2015, the Ministry of Civil Affairs stated: “In recent years, some cities have failed to protect historical place names in the reconstruction of old cities and development of new cities.'Foreign place names and strange place names' have emerged one after another, and some places with profound cultural heritage have disappeared for no reason. It cut off the place-name context of the city and caused great harm to the inheritance of ethnic culture."

　　In December 2018, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Natural Resources and other ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Notice on Further Sorting Out Irregular Place Names" stating that there are irregular place names such as "big, foreign, strange, heavy" in some areas. , Large-scale buildings, roads and lanes and other place names that exist in irregular place names shall be standardized and standardized.

　　According to Wu Gengyou's research, the "big, foreign, eccentric, strange, heavy" that needed to be rectified before was changed to "big, foreign, strange, heavy" and other irregular place names, while the "big, foreign, strange, heavy" place names were mainly concentrated in residential buildings. Districts, buildings.

　　In June 2019, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a notice requiring all localities to steadily promote the cleanup and rectification of irregular place names, focusing on the cleanup and rectification of irregular place names in newly-built residential areas and large buildings in cities and towns that have bad social impact and strong reactions from all parties.

　　Before and after, all parts of the country have successively carried out actions to clean up and rectify irregular names.

　　In this regard, Wang Jingbo stated that China’s geographical name management is not in a state of “unable to rely on”. The “Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names” promulgated by the State Council provides a normative basis for the management of geographical names in China. The “Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names” promulgated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs is for geographical names. Administrative agencies provide clearer guidelines for administration according to law. Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places have introduced local place name management legislation.

　　"The central and local normative basis for the management of geographical names can provide guidance to the administrative organs of geographical names at all levels to a certain extent." Wang Jingbo said, but whether it is the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" or the "Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names," The renaming regulations are too general in terms of management agencies, procedures and entities. They do not even stipulate the naming rights and renaming rights of place names, nor do they stipulate the supervision and management of place names, which is not conducive to the rule of law in place name management.

　　In Wu Gengyou's view, place names in the perspective of the rule of law refer to place names approved by state agencies, and the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" and the "Regulations on the Implementation of the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" also have many regulations on the naming conventions of geographical names.

　　"So, irregular place names are actually illegal place names." Wu Gengyou said, "In this way, irregular place names must be cleaned up and rectified, but in the process of cleaning up and rectifying, they also need to be rectified in accordance with legal procedures. , To avoid sports-style rectification and avoid'one size fits all'."

　　Wu Gengyou believes that there is actually a statutory procedure of place name approval between the name of a geographical entity and a place name with legal effect. Once the name of a geographical entity officially becomes a place name, the place name will have legal effect and become public and authoritative. Sex and seriousness, so you can't change it if you want.

　　The subject of naming rights must legislate clearly

　　Place name approval procedures need to be improved

　　It is imperative to revise the "Regulations on the Administration of Place Names".

　　In 2018, the "Revision of the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names"" was included in the "Projects to Prompt Research and Demonstration" in the "2018 Legislative Work Plan of the Ministry of Civil Affairs".

　　In 2019, the "Ministry of Civil Affairs' 2019 Legislative Work Plan" mentioned that the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" "the revised draft is to be submitted to the State Council for deliberation." In October of the same year, the full text of the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names (Revised Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" drafted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs was released to the public to solicit opinions from all walks of life.

　　The "Regulations on Geographical Names Management (Revised Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" has been extended to 8 chapters and 63 articles (13 articles in the "Regulations on Geographical Names Management"). Provision of services, supervision and management, and legal responsibilities.

　　A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" noted that the "Regulations on Geographical Names Management (Draft Revision for Solicitation of Comments)" stated that some contents of the "Regulations on Geographical Names" are no longer suitable for current work needs and urgently need to be revised and improved with the times. Specifically, they include: poor management system, narrow management scope and content, relatively principled procedures, and lack of regulatory measures.

　　Wang Jingbo believes that the publication of the "Regulations on the Management of Geographical Names (Revised Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" will help fill and improve the gaps and defects in the management of geographical names.

　　In Wang Jingbo's view, the subject of naming rights is exactly one of the defects that needs to be improved. The names of stations, stations, ports, places, towns and streets, and building names that are closely related to public life and have the meaning of place names. The current "Regulations on Place Names Management" and "Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Place Names Management Regulations" do not clearly stipulate The subject of naming rights does not have a unified standard when designing relevant systems in various places. "For the naming rights of these geographical spaces or buildings, legislation should be adopted to clarify the subject of the naming rights, so as to avoid related disputes and disputes caused by unclear subjects."

　　Wang Jingbo believes that the current "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" and "Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" on the naming and rename approval requirements are more concentrated at the level of who conducts the examination and approval, but according to the requirements of administration according to law and the construction of a legal government, there should be The corresponding legal procedures are regulated. At the same time, it is necessary to comprehensively improve the system, clarify the subject of naming rights, clarify the procedures for naming and rename approval, enrich and improve the supervision and management methods of geographical names management agencies, and keep close contact with the masses to form a new situation of joint governance between the government and society in the field of geographical names. The legalization of place name management.

　　Zhu Lijia suggested that the revision of the "Regulations on the Administration of Geographical Names" should proceed within the framework of advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, in line with the principles of democratization, scientification, and standardization, to improve the level of management of geographical names in our country, and should clearly violate Punishment methods in laws and regulations punish units and individuals that illegally name, change their names, or use irregular names.