Local legislation is reorganized and embarked on a new journey: reflecting the requirements of the times and reflecting local characteristics

Reflect the requirements of the times and reflect local characteristics

Local legislation, rearmament and new journey

【Dharma Eye View】

Recently, the topic of "legislating for Lanzhou ramen" in Gansu has been on the hot search. As a local snack with stores all over the country, Lanzhou ramen is widely loved by diners, but there are also many complaints caused by the irregular operation of individual stores, such as "Lanzhou ramen in the country can't use a cow a year" and "eat four stores, four restaurants and four flavors". Knowing that the "Lanzhou Beef Ramen Industry Development Regulations" has been included in the 2023 legislative work plan research project of the Standing Committee of the Gansu Provincial People's Congress, many people have pinned their hopes on legislative norms, suggesting that Lanzhou beef ramen be formulated standards, local legislation should be used to regulate local names and polish local business cards.

Opening the national laws and regulations database, there are more than 1,3 effective local regulations in China, which are as bright as the stars. Zang Tiewei, director of the Research Office of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said that since the 3th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a large number of laws and regulations reflecting the requirements of the times and local characteristics have been formulated and revised in various localities, which have played an important role in promoting local implementation of new development concepts, achieving high-quality development, accelerating the transformation of governance methods and improving governance capabilities, and improving people's living standards. In March this year, the Legislation Law, known as the "mini-constitution", ushered in the second amendment, and local legislation "expanded" and "increased efficiency". The revision of the Legislation Law reflects the progress of local legislative work and changes in the legal environment in China, and also opens up a broader space for local legislation.

Absorb public opinion, pool people's wisdom, and better play the role of grassroots legislative contact points

In the eyes of Zheng Yi, associate professor of the Law School of Minzu University of China, since the revision of the Legislation Law in 2015 gave districted cities legislative power, the field of local legislation has become more diversified, the coverage is broader, the types of legislation have been further enriched, and "small cuts" and "small fast spirit" legislation have gradually become advantages and trends. At the same time, Zheng Yi, as a director of the Legislative Research Association of the China Law Society, obviously felt that when participating in legislative theory academic activities, in addition to academic colleagues, legislators from all over the world will also actively participate in it; In various legislative projects in various places, more and more experts in the academic field have been seen.

"In legislative academic activities, the enthusiasm of departmental legal scholars and legislative staff has increased significantly, which is also a change in the pattern of legislative research. At present, legislation is soliciting opinions online, and even scholars are directly entrusted to draft expert proposals, and the interaction between academia and practice is also deepening, and the quality of legislation is constantly improving. Zheng Yi added.

Under the legislative work pattern of party committee leadership, people's congress leadership, government support, and participation of all parties, the current revision of the Legislation Law will adhere to people's democracy in the whole process and build grassroots legislative contact points into it, stipulating that legislative organs may set up grassroots legislative contact points according to actual needs and thoroughly listen to the opinions of the grassroots masses and relevant parties.

Since 2015, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has set up 31 grassroots legislative contact points and 1 legislative contact point in various places, and radiated more than 5500,2022 grassroots legislative contact points across the country, forming a three-level linkage work pattern of national, provincial and municipal contact points. As of December 12, 142 draft laws have solicited the opinions of grassroots legislative contact points of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, collected more than 1,5 opinions, and adopted more than 2800,<> opinions.

Zhao Xiaoming, director of the Office of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress, told reporters that in the past five years, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress has expanded the number of grassroots legislative contact points to 5, and the new grassroots legislative contact points include grassroots autonomous units and grassroots political power organizations, as well as city and county-level law enforcement, judicial and government service departments, truly achieving "more shifts, wider routes, and more complete coverage", and participated in the solicitation of opinions on all legislative projects. He said that it is necessary to further broaden the ways and means for the public to participate in legislation, and better play the role of expert think tanks and grassroots legislative contact points.

In the interviews, many experts, scholars and legislators have high hopes for the role of grassroots legislative contact points in legislative work in the future. After solving the problem of "whether it is good or not", solving the problem of "whether it is good or not" will be put on the agenda, and there will be more ways for all sectors of society to participate in legislative work, and its role will be stronger.

Expansion of legislative authority, local grassroots affairs or popular areas of establishment law

Another highlight of the revision of the Legislation Law is the improvement of the legislative authority of districted cities. In addition to urban and rural construction and management, ecological civilization construction, and historical and cultural protection, the new law adds provisions that districted cities may formulate local regulations and local government rules on "grassroots governance" matters. Tong Weidong, director of the National Law Office of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, recently wrote that the revision here is "taking into account the characteristics of districted cities and the actual needs of local innovative grassroots governance."

Local legislative competence is a topic of concern in all localities. Since 2015, there has been endless discussion on the definition of the scope of "urban and rural construction and management". Tong Weidong said in his article that in the practice of districted cities exercising local legislative power, many localities have written letters asking whether they fall within the legislative authority of districted cities on specific matters, and the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has basically given affirmative answers, supporting the legislative needs of districted cities. Therefore, in practice, the understanding and grasp of the scope of "urban and rural construction and management" is relatively broad.

"Where is the scope and boundary of local legislative competence? It is very important to give full play to the initiative and enthusiasm of local legislation. Zheng Yi told reporters that he hoped that in the future, authoritative departments could further clarify the matter of "grassroots governance" to avoid the tendency of "conservative" local legislation caused by vague concepts.

"In the future, a very important growth point for local legislation may be local affairs." Zheng Yi believes that local affairs with distinct regional characteristics that cannot be reached by national legislation may become a space for local legislation to do a lot in the future. When talking about the implementation of the main measures of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Zang Tiewei also specifically mentioned that attention should be paid to improving the ability and level of grassroots governance in society, and effectively giving play to the functional role of local legislation in improving the rule of law and ensuring good governance.

Regional coordinated legislation, mechanism building should come first

In January 2020, the Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Emissions from Motor Vehicles and Non-Road Mobile Machinery in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region were published, and the unified text of the regulations of the three places was unified, deliberated and voted on separately, and promulgated simultaneously, becoming a landmark achievement of the coordinated legislation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Coordinated legislation is also a bright spot in local legislative work in recent years. The work conference of the Central People's Congress clearly proposed to establish and improve regional coordinated legislation, river basin legislation, and joint legislative work mechanisms. The Local Organic Law, amended in 2022, also provides for the principle of regional coordinated legislation. In practice, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta have formed a relatively mature legislative coordination mechanism, playing an active role in cross-regional ecological environmental protection, air pollution prevention and control, transportation integration, etc., and many places such as Shanxi, Fujian, Shandong and Sichuan have also actively explored. The revision of the Legislation Law adds provisions that local governments "may, in accordance with the needs of coordinated regional development, coordinate the formulation of local regulations and implement them in their own administrative regions or relevant regions" and "may establish regional coordinated legislative work mechanisms."

Li Bei, Director of the First Division of the Legislative Affairs Office of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, witnessed the process of promoting the construction of systems and mechanisms in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and constantly exploring and expanding the field of legislative coordination. "The most important point of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated legislation is to pay attention to system construction at the initial stage. The establishment of the institutional framework has enabled the three places to carry out theoretical research, work exchanges, and tackling specific problems in legislative work, as well as mutual opinions and suggestions on specific legislative work and projects, and smoothly carry out coordination at multiple levels of legislative work. Li Bei said.

Although the three places have different economic foundations, different priorities for air pollution prevention and control, and the consistency of current standards and law enforcement and supervision standards for new vehicles and in-use vehicles, with the coordination mechanism in place, the three places have finally achieved the same name of regulations, the same chapter structure, the same coordinated prevention and control, and the convergence of major governance systems and legal responsibilities.

Coincidentally, the Yangtze River Delta region, which has carried out many times of regional coordinated legislation, also places the regional collaborative legislative work mechanism in an important position. In 2018, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Anhui officially signed the Agreement on Deepening the Coordination of Local Legislative Work of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress in the Yangtze River Delta Region, clarifying the principles, mechanisms, methods and scope of regional and local legislative cooperation, and institutionalizing coordinated legislation.

"Regional coordinated legislation and putting mechanism construction in front can be described as 'sharpening knives and not cutting wood by mistake'." Zheng Yi said that China has a vast territory, and the resource endowment, history and culture of different regions are different, and the mechanism construction will be different. At present, the regional coordinated legislative mechanism in many regions is still in the exploratory stage, and the revision of the Legislation Law provides a good institutional flexibility for this exploration.

(Guangming Daily reporter Liu Huadong, correspondent Zheng Lihui)