(Source: 21st Century Economic Report 2024-05-25)
The State Council executive meeting held on May 24 heard a report on the administrative review work.
The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to give full play to the role of administrative reconsideration as the main channel for resolving administrative disputes, conscientiously implement the newly revised Administrative Reconsideration Law, promptly revise the implementation regulations of the Administrative Reconsideration Law, and further improve the administrative reconsideration supervision and restriction mechanism for behaviors such as failure to perform statutory duties, illegal procedures, and arbitrary fines.
Citizens, legal persons or other organizations that believe that the administrative actions of administrative agencies infringe upon their legitimate rights and interests may submit an application for administrative review to the administrative review agency.
On March 29, 2024, the "Ministry of Justice 2023 Annual Report on the Construction of a Rule of Law Government" released on the official website of the Ministry of Justice showed that in 2023, 315,000 new administrative review cases were received nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 17.1%; 293,000 administrative review cases were completed in accordance with the law, a year-on-year increase of 14.45%.
As the main channel to resolve "disputes between people and officials", experts point out that the key to improving the credibility and authority of the administrative review system is to improve the fairness of administrative review.
Experts also pointed out that the newly revised Administrative Reconsideration Law clearly stipulates that administrative review agencies should follow the principles of efficiency and convenience when performing administrative review duties, and stipulates a series of specific systems, which need to be implemented in many aspects in the future.
Accelerate the establishment, reform and abolition of the legal system
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress pointed out that administrative review is a supervision system for self-correction of the government system and a relief system for resolving administrative disputes. It is an important starting point for promoting administration according to law and building a government governed by the rule of law.
The newly revised Administrative Review Law was reviewed and adopted at the fifth meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress on September 1, 2023, and will come into effect on January 1, 2024. This revision is the first comprehensive revision of the Administrative Review Law since its implementation more than 20 years ago.
Over the past 20 years, the field of administrative reconsideration cases has gradually expanded, covering almost all administrative fields such as public security, land, market supervision, and social security, involving administrative penalties, administrative coercion, administrative licensing, administrative collection, etc.
However, the role of administrative reconsideration as the main channel for resolving administrative disputes has been ineffective for a long time. The number of administrative reconsideration cases is not only inferior to the number of first-instance administrative litigation cases nationwide, let alone compared with the processing volume of tens of millions of petition channels.
2023 is a milestone year for the administrative review system for more than 20 years. According to the "2023 Annual Report on the Construction of a Rule-of-Law Government by the Ministry of Justice", 315,000 new administrative review cases were accepted nationwide in 2023, exceeding the number of new first-instance administrative litigation cases accepted by courts across the country. Data released by the Supreme People's Court in March this year show that in 2023, courts across the country accepted 310,400 first-instance administrative cases, an increase of 6.39%.
The promulgation and implementation of the newly revised Administrative Review Law will further promote the high-quality development of administrative review.
Cao Liu, deputy dean of the Institute of Legal Government of China University of Political Science and Law and executive director of the Administrative Reconsideration Professional Committee of the Administrative Law Research Society of the China Law Society, believes that it is necessary to speed up the revision of relevant implementation regulations and issue supporting institutional systems including regulations and normative documents as soon as possible. Local governments also need to promptly initiate the reform, abolition and interpretation of relevant systems to consolidate the basic institutional guarantee for the high-quality development of administrative reconsideration.
Relevant supporting legislation and amendments are being carried out in full swing, especially the revision of the Implementation Regulations of the Administrative Review Law has been put on the agenda. On April 16, the "Ministry of Ecology and Environment's Administrative Reconsideration Measures (Revised Draft)" was released and will come into effect on June 1, 2024. On March 12, the official website of the Ministry of Justice released the "Working Rules of the Administrative Reconsideration Committee (Draft for Comments)". The opinion collection period has ended. The official website of the Ministry of Justice reported on March 29 that it has adopted or partially adopted most of the opinions and suggestions collected.
Improve administrative review procedure rules
The Standing Committee of the State Council pointed out that administrative review should be used to promote the improvement of the level of administration according to law, make administrative review more convenient for the people, and continuously improve the efficiency and credibility of administrative review.
The meeting also pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen the connection between administrative reconsideration and people's mediation, administrative litigation, letters and visits, etc., and explore the establishment of a mechanism to channel eligible administrative disputes from administrative litigation, letters and visits, etc. into administrative review channels for resolution.
The newly revised Administrative Reconsideration Law clearly stipulates that the administrative review organs shall follow the principles of efficiency and convenience when performing administrative review duties, and stipulates a series of specific systems.
Kong Xiangwen, associate professor at the w88 casino of Law, w88 casino, member of the Administrative Reconsideration Professional Committee of the Administrative Law Research Society of the China Law Societybelieves that implementation can be promoted from the following aspects in the future:
The first is to implement the various notification requirements stipulated in the Administrative Reconsideration Law and provide clearer guidance for parties to apply for and participate in review; the second is to optimize the design of various procedures in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Reconsideration Law, such as the separation and connection of simplified procedures and ordinary procedures, and details of the applicant's entrustment of an agent to participate in administrative reconsideration, and the submission of reconsideration applications through the original agency, etc. procedures; the third is to better leverage the comparative advantages of administrative review and improve the efficiency of administrative review in substantively resolving disputes through mediation, making change decisions, etc.; the fourth is to further strengthen informatization construction and make full use of digital technology to improve the convenience of parties applying for and participating in review, such as building a corresponding electronic review platform to carry out online acceptance, response, mediation, hearing, service and other activities.
According to reports, Chongqing citizen Wu Xun (pseudonym) went to the Jiangbei District Justice Bureau to submit an application for administrative review one morning, and returned here in the afternoon to withdraw the application.
It turned out that the Jiangbei District Justice Bureau applied a simplified procedure and contacted the District Traffic Police Detachment as soon as possible to verify that Wu Xun had violated the law for the first time and immediately rectified it. There were no harmful consequences and no punishment was required. The District Traffic Police Detachment revoked the administrative penalty against Wu Xun. Therefore, he went to the District Justice Bureau that afternoon to submit an application for withdrawal of administrative reconsideration.
Using the role of administrative reconsideration as the main channel to resolve administrative disputes lies in efficiency on the one hand and fairness on the other.
“The key to improving the credibility and authority of the administrative review system is to improve the fairness of administrative review.”Kong XiangwenTell 21st Century Business Herald.
He believes that it is necessary to further refine and improve the procedural rules of administrative review, such as refining the design of procedures for listening to the opinions of the parties and hearings, so that the parties can participate more in the review process and effectively express their opinions; it is necessary to attach importance to the role of "outside brains" and strengthen administrative review In the construction of the committee, advisory opinions will be used as an important reference for making administrative reconsideration decisions to make up for the lack of legal judgment and professional knowledge of the review agencies; it is necessary to strengthen the capacity building of the review agencies to ensure that the review agencies accurately identify facts, apply the law, and make legal and appropriate review decisions.
"In addition, explaining reasons and being open and transparent are also important ways to enhance credibility. In the future, it is necessary to further strengthen the reasoning of administrative review decision letters, and at the same time, in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Review Law, establish and improve a system for disclosing review decision letters to the public."Kong XiangwenSay.
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