Reparation law revision to go to NPC

The draft revision of the 14-year-old State Compensation Law will be given its first reading by deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) next Thursday, it was announced yesterday at a meeting in Beijing hosted by the country's top legislator Wu Bangguo.

The proposed changes to the statute came about following criticism from the legal sector of the way in which the law - designed to protect the public from the improper practices of government organs - was being implemented.

Legal experts have said that despite the growing number of malpractice cases now being brought against the government, the law in its present form is too narrow in its scope, fails to guarantee the payment of fair levels of compensation, and is too unwieldy to function smoothly.