Amendment eases path to take grievances to court

A draft amendment to be reviewed by the top legislature is expected to decrease the number of petitions by making it easier for a person to sue government agencies, legal experts said.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the nation's top legislative body, considered the draft amendment of the Administrative Procedure Law on Wednesday morning.

It defines procedures for challenging government agencies and officials in courts.

If approved, the amendment will represent the first revision of the law since it was enacted 23 years ago.

Contrary to what had been expected, many people continued to resort to petitions after administrative lawsuits were rejected repeatedly by the courts, Xin Chunying, vice-chairwoman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said at a conference of the NPC on Monday.

Only 163,000 administrative lawsuits were accepted by the courts last year, while at the same time more than 1.3 million cases were petitioned to the discipline and inspection authorities, according to statistics released by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the Supreme People's Court.

In addition, a white paper released on Nov 6 by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court showed that of the 2,531 administrative cases heard at the court, the government lost only 6.8 percent.

"It is difficult for the people to have their administrative suits accepted by the court and tried fairly, because many courts are reluctant to file a lawsuit against the government," Yuan Jie, director of the administrative law department under the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said on Tuesday.

Jiang Ming'an, a law professor at Peking University, said that the large number of petitioners also reflected the public's lack of trust toward courts and the law.

If the amendment is adopted, things will be improved to some extent because it lays out detailed rules making it easier for the people to have their administrative lawsuits against government agencies accepted by courts, he said.

According to earlier media reports, the draft amendment requires courts to make clear any reason for refusing a suit. It also requires them to allow people who are illiterate to argue their cases orally and to help them make written records.

To ensure fair trial, the draft amendment also asks the higher people's court to designate a neutral trial venue — a place where neither the defendant nor the plaintiff is closely tied; and if a person sues a government agency at the county level or above, the case should be put under the jurisdiction of the intermediate people's court, to prevent the government from interfering.

Jiang suggested that chief government officials should attend the court trials in administrative cases, even though there are no compulsory rules in the amendment requiring their appearance.

"If a mayor appears at a court and shakes hands with the plaintiff, the disputes might be easier to resolve," he said.

According to Hu Jianmiao, a law professor at Chinese Academy of Governance, the amendment will also make strict and unprecedented rules for dealing with government officials who refuse to follow the court's directives.

"Under the amendment, administrative bodies have a duty to carry out the court's rulings, or it's possible the chief official can be taken into custody," he said.

However, Xue Gangling, a law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said that even though the amendment gives detailed rules to curb the interference of public power, it is impossible to completely prevent administrative interference.

"A feature of Chinese society is guanxi (connections between people). It will be a long time before interference can be prevented," she said.

All of the sentences made by the courts should be publicized onto the Internet starting next year, which will boost transparency and enhance the supervision of the courts, she said.

anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn