Research On The Scope Of Reviewable Administrative Actions In China Under WTO Environment

The study of reviewable administrative actions, or the scope of judicial review of administrative actions of the People's Republic of China, has long time been the disputes and debates of scholars as well as law practitioners of administrative litigation law. With China's constitutional adoption of the essential state policy of "rule of law" in 1999 and her accession to WTO( World Trade Organization) in 2001, the study of this topic has become a more heated one and enlargement of the scope of judicial review of administrative actions seems to be urgently necessary and unavoidable in China.Beginning with the original meaning the concept "reviewable administrative actions", or "the scope of judicial review of administrative actions", the author of this paper has first discussed the essential value and function of administrative litigation, historical development of the scope of judicial review of administrative actions in China; then he has briefly made a comparative study of the topic with reference to its equivalents in other states, which shows that the non-reviewable administrative actions in China , such as "abstract administrative actions", "final administrative actions" and even "inner administrative actions" can well be reviewed since judicial supervision and review for administrative actions is only the natural conclusion of the conception of "state ruled of law", and thus the detailed listing of "reviewable administrative actions" seems to be only unnecessary and misleading; and last but not least, the author made a detailed study of the stipulations in WTO Rules concerning judicial review, which require that "abstract administrative actions", "final administrative actions" ,etc., shall fall in the jurisdiction of judicial review.So the improvement and enlargement of the scope of judicial review of administrative actions in China is both unavoidable and clear: to make amendments to the administrative litigation law to review "abstract administrative actions", "final administrative actions" and "inner administrative actions";to delete detailed listing of "reviewable administrative actions" and to establish the essential rule in administrative litigation that any administrative actions shall be judicially reviewable unless the litigation is definitely forbidden by law and harmful to the principle of rule of law. Meanwhile administrative case law system can be adopted by China to clarify confusions related with the scope of judicial review.