Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization

IX. Promoting Socialist Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics

The rule of law provides an important guarantee for Chinese modernization. We must ensure full implementation of the Constitution and uphold its authority, coordinate the reforms to promote sound legislation, law enforcement, administration of justice, and observance of the law, and improve the mechanisms for ensuring that all are equal before the law, so as to promote socialist rule of law, uphold social fairness and justice, and see that all work of the state is carried out under the rule of law.

(33) Deepening reforms in legislation

The socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics centered on the Constitution will be improved. We will refine the systems for ensuring full implementation of the Constitution and establish a system for reporting on its implementation. We will improve the legislative framework under which Party committees exercise leadership, people's congresses play a principal role, government departments provide support, and various sectors of society get involved. We will make sure that steps to enact, revise, abolish, interpret, and codify laws are well-coordinated and work to bolster legislation in key, emerging, and foreign-related areas. We will improve both the constitutional review system and the record and review system for normative documents. These efforts will ensure that the quality of legislation further improves. We will explore cross-regional collaboration on legislation. We will improve mechanisms for aligning and coordinating Party rules and regulations with state laws and regulations. A unified national information platform for laws, regulations, and other normative documents will be created.

(34) Advancing law-based government administration

We will keep working to establish a sound legal footing for government institutions, functions, powers, procedures, and responsibilities. We will make government services more standardized, procedure-based, and accessible and improve the integrated national online platform for government services. We will improve the legality review mechanism for major decisions and normative documents and conduct a more thorough review of the legislative work of the government. We will push forward with structural reforms regarding administrative law enforcement, improving institutions and mechanisms for coordinated law enforcement at the community level and for conducting oversight over enforcement. We will refine the system of standards on administrative discretion for matters such as administrative penalties and work to align the administrative law enforcement standards of different regions. Improvements will be made to the system for coordinating administrative and criminal penalties, the institutions and mechanisms for administrative reconsideration, and the administrative adjudication system. We will refine both the vertical management system and the tiered management system at the local level to promote closer coordination and collaboration between institutions under vertical management and local governments. Prudent steps will be taken to optimize the institutions in counties with small populations. We will further reform the management system in development zones. We will improve the structure and layout of public institutions to ensure that they better serve the public interest.

(35) Improving the institutions and mechanisms for impartial law enforcement and administration of justice

We will refine the institutions and mechanisms for ensuring that supervisory organs, public security organs, procuratorates, courts, and administrative departments for justice all fulfill their respective functions and that powers of supervision, investigation, procuratorate, adjudication, and enforcement complement and constrain each other. This will ensure that law enforcement and judicial activities are subject to effective checks and oversight at every link and stage in the process. We will deepen the reforms to separate adjudicatory and enforcement powers, improve the national system for law enforcement, and see that the parties concerned, the procuratorates, and the public exercise oversight throughout the process of enforcement activities. We will improve the system for providing legal remedies and protection during the course of law enforcement and judicial activities as well as the system for granting state compensation. We will increase the transparency of judicial work and improve relevant procedures. We will also enforce and enhance judicial accountability. The establishment of special courts will be regulated. We will further the reforms related to the jurisdiction of administrative cases where jurisdiction is defined by subject matter, exercised in a centralized manner, or established in another region. We will develop institutions and mechanisms for coordinated, efficient policing, advance the reform of staffing management in public security organs at the local level, and continue to reform the management systems in the civil aviation public security organs and the anti-smuggling departments of customs authorities. We will standardize the management of police auxiliaries.

Adhering to the correct outlook on human rights, we will provide more effective human rights protection through law enforcement and administration of justice. We will improve the working mechanisms for ex ante review, ongoing oversight, and ex post redress and refine the system for coercive measures that concern the personal rights of citizens as well as the sealing, sequestering, and freezing of assets. We will investigate and prosecute, in accordance with the law, the abuse of power to bend the law for personal gain, illegal detention, the use of torture to extort confessions, and other similar offences. We will see that lawyer defense is provided in all criminal cases and introduce a system to seal records for minor offences.

(36) Improving the mechanisms for building a law-based society

We will improve the public legal services system covering both urban and rural populations and further reform the systems related to lawyers, notarization, arbitration, mediation, and forensic evidence management. We will adopt more effective methods to raise public awareness of the rule of law and refine the practice-oriented approach to law school education. We will better protect the rights and interests of minors, step up efforts to prevent and control juvenile delinquency, and formulate special regulations on correction and education.

(37) Strengthening the rule of law in foreign-related affairs

We will establish mechanisms for taking a holistic approach to promoting legislation, law enforcement, administration of justice, observance of the law, legal services, and the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs. We will improve the system of foreign-related laws and regulations and the systems for enforcing the rule of law and work to deepen international cooperation in law enforcement and administration of justice. We will refine the judicial system that allows the parties in foreign-related civil lawsuits to lawfully enter into jurisdictional agreements and choose applicable extraterritorial laws. We will improve the arbitration and mediation system for international commercial disputes and cultivate world-class arbitration organizations and law firms. We will actively participate in the formulation of international rules.