The Standing Committee of the the National People’s Congress (NPC) will hold meetings this week to consider reforming the nation’s Administrative Procedure Law to make it easier for citizens to initiate legal proceedings against the government.
The reforms were proposed to answer common complaints pointing to the fact that while the current version of the law allows citizens to bring lawsuits against the government, problems in getting cases on the court docket, getting judges to actually hold hearings on the cases, getting authorities to enforce court ruling and local government interference in the cases have all made filing suits nearly useless.
Alternatively, citizens have turned to the more traditional “petition system.” Under the petition system, rather than using the courts to solve disputes with the government, citizens will travel to petition bureaus to present their cases in hopes that the bureaus will have more authority to grant the relief they seek. According to the proposed draft, the amendments will seek to close loopholes in the law that allow courts and officials to deny in practice what is required on the books.
Specific amendments include requiring courts to hear citizen lawsuits against the government, require that government defendants be available for cases against them, forbid government authorities from interfering or obstructing courts from hearing lawsuits against them, and emphasizing that one of the court’s duty is to make sure that citizens’ right to bring a lawsuit against the government is protected.
Amendments also seek to expand the subject matter jurisdiction of the cases that citizens can bring against authorities to include cases involving the unlawful collection of property, unfair apportioning of fees, illegal fundraising, the infringement of rural management and contract, as well as cases concerning the rights of citizens to own or use forests, mineral reserves, mountains and water.