On The Legal System Of Administrative Hearing

The introduction of administrative hearing system marks that our administrative acts are going towards the value aim of openness, equality, justice, and democracy in the areas of execution, legislation and public policy decisions. Because administrative hearing system was introduced just for a short time, compared with foreign countries, our administrative hearing system needs to be improved in legislation, the phenomenon of hearing but not proving is especially projecting in practice thus the hearing system is just nominal. Besides, several disputes on foundation of administrative hearing system still exist in the theory circle, and confusions exist in cognition. Therefore, to improve and develop the system, realize the perfect combination with our current legal system and make it feasible, how to combine our state situation with foreign experiences, is a new topic worthy to make further exploration. With the method of theory linking to reality, referring to relevant foreign legislation and our administrative hearing practice, through discussing the concept and nature, types and applications scope, historical development and realistic significances of administrative hearing, and based on the thought on main problems existing in administrative hearing, the author puts forward his opinions on the idea of the legalization of our administrative hearing system, in order to advance the administrative procedure in our administrative hearing system and the healthy development of administrative law. The main body of the article can be divided into four parts. Part 1 Discusses the concept and nature, types and application scope of administrative hearing. Firstly, the author defines administrative hearing by making use of its conception: administrative hearing means the legal procedure in which administrative organs give chances for administrative objects, and hear voices of administrative objects on relevant facts and legal issues. The term can be used in a broad and a narrow sense. Secondly, the author holds that the nature of administrative hearing should be understood from three aspects: it is an important legal system in administrative procedure law, and a concrete administrative activity procedure set by law in the whole administrative procedure, besides, it is also an important right of administrative litigant in legal relation of administrative procedure. Next, the author pigeonholes administrative hearing from different aspects. It can be divided into: legislative administrative hearing, executive administrative hearing and judicatory administrative hearing; formal hearing and informal hearing; beforehand, afterwards and combination hearings, and written hearing and oral hearing, etc. Finally, the author discusses the application scope of administrative hearing and focuses on the two manners of determining the application scope of administrative hearing: legislative manner and files deciding manner. The principles for determining the application scope of administrative hearing are: principle of balancing individual interests and public interests, and principle of costs less than benefits. Two standards of determining the application scope of administrative hearing are: behavior standard and profits standard. Part 2 discusses historical development and realistic significances of hearing system. Firstly, the author traces back to the emergence and development of hearing system in western countries and the reform and development of hearing system in our country. Then, the author analyzes the function of administrative hearing in modern administrative government. He holds that the function mainly can be shown: provide procedure security to justice adjudication; show the subjectivity of administrative objects and the equality of participation; ensure the administrative result is true, legal and scientific. Finally, the author expounds the realistic significances of administrative hearing from multiple perspectives: from theoretical perspective, the setting of administrative hearing system restricts the abuse of public rights in administrative organs to the maximum limit, and find a best balance between public rights and individual rights; from the perspective of economics, by administrative hearing, when an object realizes he indeed violated related administrative legal prescriptions, he may give up administrative reconsideration or lawsuit, thus improve administrative efficiency and avoid to increase unnecessary costs of state compensation caused by illegal administration; from the perspective of administrative legalsystem, undoubtedly, administrative hearing procedure is the core of administrative procedure system and the indispensable sector in administrative procedure system. The gaps and omissions of administrative hearing procedure will certainly lead to severe destruction in the whole administrative legal system; from the perspective of ruling our state by law, through administrative hearing procedure, the openness and transparency of administrative procedure can be increased, and space for communication and cooperation can be bridged between administrative organs and objects. Part 3 discusses basic principles and relevant systems of administrative hearing. The author holds that basic principles of administrative hearing include principles of openness, justice and convenience. The openness principle means that unless regulated specially by law, the openness of information, course and results should be realized when administrative subject is holding hearing activities. The openness principle demands: the administrative principle of counsel is openness; administrative subjects have the obligation of open counsel, while the objects have the rights to ask for review; hearing decisions, hearing preparations, hearing trials, hearing written records, etc. should be open to objects and society, including the press; the hearing result should be open. Systems related to the openness principle are: system of notifying in advance; system of reviewing files; system of explaining reasons, and so on. The justice principle means when hosting an administrative hearing, the host should treat each concerned party equally to avoid factors that may cause injustice or prejudice. The justice principle includes the following basic contents: the host of hearing or administrative organ should know necessary facts and truth fairly, investigate facts and collect relevant evidences; the host of administrative hearing should be even-handed and unbiased to all the concerned parties, providing them equal chances to participate; when making decisions that affect legal rights of concerned party, the host or administrative subject should avoid prejudice. Systems related to the justice principle are: system of separating functions; system of files exclusiveness; system of forbidding unilateral contact. The convenience principle means that administrative hearing should be nimble, quick and convenient for citizens, corporate and other organizations toparticipate. The principle demands: the steps of hearing shouldn't be over elaborate; time limit must be obeyed strictly; the choice of hearing manners should be scientific. Systems related to the convenience principle are: system of prescription; the diversity of hearing manners, and so on. Part 4 analyzes main problems existing in administrative hearing and puts forward the author's viewpoints on the idea of the legalization of administrative hearing legal system in China. In the author's opinion, main problems existing in our administrative hearing at present are: the functions and significances of administrative hearing system are not given enough understanding from ideological level; hearing becomes a mere formality; standard and unified administrative hearing legal system is lacking. To build legalized administrative hearing system, we must start with the following aspects: first, enhance administrative theory of administrative subject procedure and the awareness of hearing rights of administrative objects. Second, build complete administrative hearing legal system. Third, enlarge the application scope of administrative hearing. Fourth, establish the legal status of administrative hearing subject. Fifth, enhance the legal efficiency of hearing written records. Sixth, complete administrative hearing relief system. Seventh, adopt diversified hearing manner.