An exemplary law

We have heard plenty about regulating public powers. We have seen three national laws, on administrative litigations, penalties, and permits, respectively.

At its 17th National Congress, the Communist Party of China continued to urge State organs to perform in accordance with the jurisdiction and procedure stipulated by law.

Yet no law on such procedures had existed until October 1, when Hunan province put into effect its own Regulations on Administrative Procedures.

Due procedure is no longer some academic talk but a must, since there is already a long list of the harms done from State functionaries who abuse the powers in their hands.

Some experts portrayed the Hunan legislation as a "milestone". We hope it can live up to that someday.

The Hunan rules have a good chance to fit that role. After all, it is the first independent legislation on operational procedures for administrative institutions. Which indeed fills a blank in domestic lawmaking practice. In the technical sense, it shows a fine framework from which a more sophisticated nationwide law can grow.

Let us not neglect the interesting local background - the provincial authorities in central China are in the process of a high-profile campaign to "further emancipate the mind". Conservative thinking in local officials, they believe, has been the heaviest fetter dragging the province's steps toward prosperity.

The 178-article regulations do display some fresh thinking, which remained absent in official documents yet are indispensable for good governance. Like the idea to let citizens enjoy more rights, and the government shoulder more obligations through legalizing procedures.

The document's emphasis on transparency and public participation is impressive, because it does not stop at empty talk. The two enormously overused terms are everywhere in public speeches and papers. The Hunan rules are believed to have taken one step forward, by opening up government meetings. It allows individual citizens access to government meetings on issues of broad public concern. For many, a more substantial break from past practices may be its stipulation that information that has not been published cannot justify government actions, or yield binding powers. With that, people will no longer live in the fear that they might fall prey to unspoken "internal rules".

It is also interesting to see an article on the government's obligation of "reasonable deliberation" on public hearings, so that the public hearings do not end up becoming only a show. It will not be like this, should they reasonably deliberate on what was heard.

Many experts say the Hunan legislation has ended a long debate over whether Chinese legislation on administrative procedures should begin from the central or local levels. It has, in the sense that it first happened there in Hunan.

What we hope next, then, is it becomes the local harbinger of a national legislation.

(China Daily 10/07/2008 page8)