Source: http://olbrychtpalmer.net/2015/08/12/notes-on-chinese-constitutional-law.html
Timestamp: 2018-01-23 03:55:50
Document Index: 322433945

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 8', 'art 99', 'art 120', 'art 81', 'art 126', 'art 4']

OlbrychtPalmer.net | Notes on Chinese constitutional law
Notes on Chinese constitutional law
Notes taken during: Wingking Tu, ‘An Introduction to the Chinese Legal System and Constitution’ (Lecture delivered at the University of Western Sydney, 8 August 2012).
Common law legal systems: mostly found in the British Isles, North America, Australia and NZ.
Civil law legal systems: mostly Continental Europe, Latin America, and parts of Africa and South-East Asia.
Customary law legal systems.
Muslim law legal systems: chiefly Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Mixed legal systems: spread across Africa and Asia especially.
Basic structure of the Chinese Constitution
National People’s Congress (‘NPC’) — Constitution, basic laws, resolutions and decisions.
Local People’s Congresses (‘LPCs’) and Local People’s Government’s (‘LPGs’) — law-making powers at municipal, provincial, provincial capital, large city levels; local administrative rules and regulations; other normative documents.
Scope of national legislative power is limited by Legislation Law (2000/2015) art 8 to:
Affairs concerning state sovereignty.
Formation, organisation, and functions and powers of the People’s Congresses, Governments, Courts and Procuratorates at all levels.
regional national autonomy,
special administrative regions, and
self-government among people at the grassroots level.
Criminal offences and their punishment.
deprivation of citizens of their political rights, and
restriction of the freedom of their person.
taxable items,
taxation rates, and
Expropriation and requisition of non-state-owned assets.
A basic civil system.
Fundamental economical systems and basic fiscal, customs, financial and foreign trade systems.
Systems of litigation and arbitration.
Conflict of laws in China:
The President (head of state).
The Premier (prime minister, head of government).
Governmental structure of the PRC:
Paragraph 7 of the Preamble:
The principle of upholding the socialist path.
The principle of upholding the people’s democratic dictatorship.
The principle of upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
It is very difficult to understand the relationship between the Communist Party and the law.
Party affairs including relations with other Communist Parties and party life.
Organisational affairs including allocation of all party positions.
Propaganda and education including news and colleges.
Political and legal affairs including courts, police and the ‘strike hard’ campaign.
Organisational Department is responsible for all party and key government posts, and is a key position to affect succession.
Propaganda Department monitors press and TV, and organises ideological study campaigns.
Rural Work Department makes rural policy.
People’s Daily is the top Communist Party newspaper.
The National People’s Congress (‘NPC’) meets every five years to elect leaders (President, Premier, etc).
establish social control,
promote regime legitimacy,
control administrative agents,
facilitate economic development, and
This contrasts with the goal of ‘judicial professionalism’ with the ideals of:
courts being staffed and operated by legally-trained judges, and
Supreme People’s Court (central).
Higher People’s Courts (provincial).
Intermediate People’s Courts (city level).
Basic People’s Courts (county or district).
Special People’s Courts (eg, maritime, railway and military courts).
Chinese courts have expanded their jurisdictions and caseloads have increased significantly.
From 1978–2012:
First instance civil cases increased from less than 500,000 to nearly 7,500,000 per year.
First instance criminal cases increased from about 200,000 to about 1,000,000 per year.
First instance administrative cases have slowly increased from none to about 100,000 per year.
foreign joint venture,
collective suits, and
The ‘three supremes’ doctrine:
Supremacy of the Communist Party.
Supremacy of the people’s interests.
Case study — Qi Yuling v Chen Xiaoqi (2001)
Qi Yuling (plaintiff) was a worker at Lunan Ferroalloy General Factory of Shandong.
She resided at Chengguanzhen, Zoucheng City, Shandong Province.
Chen Xiaoqi, an employee of the Shandong Tengzhou Branch of the Bank of China.
Chen Kezheng, Xiaoqi’s father and a worker in the local government where the case happened.
The Jining Business School of Shandong Province.
The 8th Middle School of Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, where Yuling and Xiaoqi graduated.
The first and second defendants obtained Yuling’s admission letter.
The first defendant successfully impersonated the plaintiff and enrolled in the Jining Business School.
General Principles of Civil Law art 99:
General Principles of Civil Law art 120:
The People’s Intermediate Court held:
The defendant Xiaoqi must stop infringing about the plaintiff’s right to her name.
The defendants must all make an apology to the plaintiff.
The defendants were jointly and severally liable for all legal fees.
All defendants were liable to compensate for emotional distress.
Certain authentication costs were to be paid by the 8th Middle School and the Education Committee.
The plaintiff’s other pleadings were rejected.
As a civil case:
The parties were entities in civil law; the remedy was to pay monetary damages and apologise.
As a criminal case?
The 8th Middle School had failed to inform the plaintiff herself of her grades.
The case may involve several crimes:
Zhiwei Tong, ‘A Comment on the Rise and Fall of the Supreme People’s Court’s Reply to Qi Yuling’s Case’
The following three factors are important to note: first, Huang Songyou was the major drafter of the Reply to Qi Yuling’s case; second, his article was published in People’s Daily Court, which is the official newsletter of the Supreme Court; and third, the leaders of the Supreme Court silently tolerated his statements. These factos gave people reason to believe that his state reflected the Supreme Court’s real attitude.
Zhiwei is sceptical of attempts to elevate the importance of Qi Yuling’s Case to the same prominence in China as Marbury v Madison in the US. The decisions of the Higher People’s Court and Supreme Court were unnecessary because the rights relied upon were already included in the Education Law of the People’s Republic of China; ‘If anyone … infringes upon the lawful rights and interests of teachers, educates, schools or other institutions of education … he or she shall bear civil liabilities according to law’: art 81. The decisions of both courts exceeded the judicial authority conferred by the Constitution (art 126) and the Organic Law of the People’s Court (art 4) which require the judiciary to be subject to the law. Zhiwei contends that constitutional rights should be used to protect citizens from public power, and in Qi Yuling’s Case the plaintiff’s rights had been infringed by a private party, meaning ‘this was not a constitutional case at all. The Supreme Court regarded and propagated this case as a constitutional one only because of the court’s ignorance about constitutional law.’