Research On The Legal Problems Of Government Regulation Of Public Utilities Franchise

For public utilities privatization, franchise is the most cardinal and important way. The public utility franchise is a system that the government chooses franchisee who should provide public services and products in a certain period or field according to the relevant laws and regulations. The principle of competition and the way of marketing introduced by public utility franchise, to a certain extent, breaks the low efficiency of the government supply mode. However, with the excessive penetration of enterprise values emphasizing on economic benefits, efficiency and efficacy,public interests and social justice is greatly compressed, and fair value is gradually weakened. During the course of the franchise, more problems concluding high price,poor quality of service, service disruption and the lack of universal service is gradually attracting social concern. So, the accurate positioning of government role in the franchise is a point for the healthy and orderly operation of the franchise.The government role as guarantor is decided by the public service character of public utilities. Public tasks of public utilities should be performed by private group or social organization in the market. If the franchisee can’t carry out the task normally,to ensure the public utilities go well, the government has rights to regulate and supervise in a role of guarantor. The government regulation of public utilities franchise means the legal regulation of government. It is not only a efficient way to prevent the potential risk from franchisee but also a specific way for government to perform the duty as a governor. The paper starts from the basic concepts of public utilities franchise and government regulation, discussing the government regulation problems in franchise, by positive analysis, textual analysis and so forth. Firstly, the paper summarizes the problems in public utilities franchise to educe the necessities of government regulation. Secondly, by elaborating the contents of government regulation, the paper states the implementing subject, basic principles and specific contents of government regulation. The implementing subject of government regulation should be a professional and independent regulatory agency. The basicprinciples of government regulation should include legal regulation, honesty regulation, public participation and due process. The specific contents of government regulation should involve the selection of qualified franchisee, the guarantee for sustainable public service supply, the protection of the third party’s legal right, and the exercising of government withdrawal options. Thirdly, by the analysis of specific regulation methods, the paper points out the substantial condition and procedural requirements for market entry regulation, franchise agreement regulation and administrative take-over, which is aim to turn the abstract content of government regulation into a operational guidance. Finally, with discussing the judicial supervision of government regulation, the paper points out that the judicial authorities should review franchise agreement, regulation discretion act, and regulation program act, in order to form efficient external supervision for the exercising of government regulatory power.