Law of the People's Republic of China is the legal regime of the People's Republic of China, with the separate legal traditions and systems of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao. The highest and ultimate source of legal norms in the PRC is the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. It establishes the framework and principles of government, and lists the fundamental rights and duties of Chinese citizens. Signed international treaties are in practice automatically incorporated into PRC law, and they are superior to the relevant stipulations of PRC laws. However, the PRC reserves the right to make reservations regarding provisions of a treaty.
Unlike some civil law jurisdictions such as Germany, China does not systematically lay down general principles in its constitution which all administrative regulations and rules must follow. The principles of legislation and the validity and priority of law, rule and administrative regulations are instead listed in the Legislation Law, constitutional provisions, basic laws and laws enacted by the National People's Congress and its standing committee, regulations issued by the State Council and its departments, local laws and regulations, autonomous-zone regulations, legal explanations and treaty norms are all in theory incorporated into domestic law immediately upon promulgation.
Unlike common law jurisdictions, there is no strict precedential concept for case law and no principle of stare decisis. In addition, there is no case or controversy requirement which would requires that the Supreme People's Court limit its decisions to actual cases, and the SPC does issue general interpretations of the law. In practice, lower people's court judges attempt to follow the interpretations of the laws decided by the Supreme People's Court. In addition, unlike common law jurisdictions, higher courts have the power of supervision and guidance, which means that they can on their own initiative reopen a case that has been decided at a lower level.
Courts in the PRC do not have a general power of judicial review which enables them to strike down legislation. However under the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, they do have authority to invalidate specific acts of the government. In cases where there is a conflict of laws, the process to resolve this conflict is outlined in the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China, in which an interpretation is requested by the legislative body that is responsible for the law. This process has been criticized both by Western and Chinese legal scholars for being unwieldy and for not allowing for judicial independence and separation of powers. At the same time, the counterargument has been made that resolving legal conflicts is primarily a legislative activity and not a judicial one.
Finally courts outside of the special autonomous regions including the Supreme People's Court do not have jurisdiction over the Hong Kong and Macao SAR's, although the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress does have and has used its authority to interpret the Basic Law of Hong Kong.
In 1986 the National People's Congress adopted the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China, which helped clarify the scope of the civil law. Article 2 of the document states that the civil law governs personal and property relationships between natural persons and legal persons having equal status. It covers a wide range of topics, including the General Principles, marriage law, property law, contract law, copyright law, and trademark law. From the point of view of some scholars, business law, such as corporation law, bankruptcy law, insurance law, and law on negotiable instruments, is distinguished from civil law.
However, in contrast to other civil law jurisdictions, the PRC has not yet consolidated its civil law into a single code, and the civil law of the PRC has developed in such a way that leads to a large amount of confusion and contradiction within the legal code. With China's booming economy, a new, more affluent class is emerging, the property of which is in urgent need of legal protection. Civil procedural law advocates the principle of 'open trial' - a system in which the second instance is the final hearing, although Chinese courts are notorious for their inefficient and bureaucratic working styles. Enforcing rulings can prove particularly difficult.
Government
While the PRC is regarded as a Communist state by many political scientists, simple characterizations of China's political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible. The PRC government has been variously described as authoritarian, communist, and socialist, with heavy restrictions remaining in many areas, most notably in the Internet and in the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of reproductive rights, and freedom of religion. However, compared to its closed door policies until the mid-1970s, the liberalization of the PRC is such that the current administrative climate is much less restrictive than before, though the PRC is still far from the full-fledged democracy as practiced in most of Europe, according to most observers internationally. The country is ruled under the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. Its incumbent President is Hu Jintao and its premier is Wen Jiabao.
Hu Jintao, current President of the PRC.The country is run by the Communist Party of China (CPC), who is guaranteed power by the Constitution. There are other political parties in the PRC, referred to in China as "democratic parties", which participate in the People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress, though they serve mainly to endorse CPC policies. There have been some moves toward political liberalisation, in that open contested elections are now held at the village and town levels, and that legislatures have shown some assertiveness from time to time. However, the Party retains effective control over governmental appointments, as in the absence of meaningful opposition, the CPC wins by default in most of the time.[18] The CPC has attempted to reduce dissent by improving the economy and allowing public expression of personal grievances so long as they are not organized.[citation needed] Current political concerns in China include lessening the growing gap between rich and poor and fighting corruption within the government leadership. The support level that the Communist Party of China has among the Chinese population in general is unclear since there are no consistently contested national elections. According to a survey conducted in Hong Kong, where a relatively high level of freedom is enjoyed, the current CPC leaders have received substantial votes of support when residents were asked to rank their favourite leaders from the PRC and Taiwan.
Politics
The Politics of the People's Republic of China (PRC) takes place in a framework of a single-party socialist republic. The leadership of the Communist Party is enshrined in the PRC Constitution. State power within the PRC is exercised through the Communist Party of China, the Central People's Government and their provincial and local counterparts. Under the dual leadership system, each local bureau or office is under the theoretically co-equal authority of the local leader and the leader of the corresponding office, bureau or ministry at the next higher level. The will of Chinese citizens is expressed through the legislative bodies of the People's Congress system. People's Congress members at the county level are elected by voters. These county level People's Congresses have the responsibility of oversight of local government, and elect members to the Provincial (or municipal in the case of independent municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing) People's Congress. The provincial People's Congress in turn elects members to the National People's Congress that meets each year in March in Beijing. The ruling Communist Party committee at each level plays a large role in the selection of appropriate candidates for election to the local congress and to the next higher level.
