Cambridge Journals Online

China's Legislation Law and the Making of a More Orderly and Representative Legislative System ^a

Abstract

This article examines the significance of the Legislation Law (lifa fa), passed by the National People's Congress (NPC) in March 2000. The Legislation Law represents an attempt by the NPC to rationalize China's legal system, establish a uniform legislative hierarchy and consolidate its authority over other important lawmaking institutions. The politics behind the Law's development therefore offer insight into the balance of power in China's lawmaking arena, revealing how key institutions – the NPC, the State Council and local people's congresses – engaged in bureaucratic bargaining over fundamental questions of their existence and authority within an evolving system. While the promulgated Law reveals the mixed results of this complex process, it also makes possible a more open and consultative legislative process by sanctioning the emergence of public legislative hearings. Now gaining currency around China, hearings are a new development and could be an important step in institutionalizing more meaningful citizen participation in the legislative process.

Footnotes

^a I would like to thank David Shambaugh, Phyllis Chang, Christine Chung, Cai Dingjian, Anna Zichterman and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) for their assistance and support. Much of the field research took place between May 2000 and January 2003 while I participated in NDI programmes in Beijing, Shanghai and Yunnan province. Any opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NDI.