Research On The Legal Status And Operational Mechanism Of Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference

Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference, an innovation during the process of implementing villager autonomy in the rural districts in China, is created for the sake of ravelling out the difficulties of convoking villagers' conference, which is a main legal way for villagers participating in making democratic decisions. It reflects villagers' will on the highest sense and demonstrates the concept of direct democracy and spirit of villager autonomy. However, the uncertainty of villagers' working time/spare time and egression of a large number of young and strong villagers to look for jobs in cities, etc., it is hard to hold a villagers' conference. That's the reason why Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference emerges as time requires. Since then, as a public authority, Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference exerts important functions of democratic decision, democratic supervision and democratic governance, strengthens villagers' capabilities of self-governance, self-education and self-service. It boasts great significance in improving basic democracy and facilitating villager autonomy.Up to now, Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference System has been established in the rural districts in China, and the enforcement methods of the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the P.R.C. stipulated by most provincial NPC Standing Committees has been incorporated in Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference. Moreover, the local regulations constituted by municipal and county-level government prescribe the powers, rules of procedure and agenda of Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference, as well as its creation, supervision and implement of its decisions in details. Despite that Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference plays a fatal role in villager autonomy system, its legal status hasn't been confirmed in the academe because Article 21 in the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the P.R.C. is ambiguous. Although Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference develops in full flourish, local regulations specifying its working are getting more and more, which displays obvious diversity.On the basis of the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the P.R.C. and its implement methods set down by various places, this paper compares the dissimilarities of the implement methods concerning Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference of the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the P.R.C. in different provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. Meanwhile, with reference to some municipal and county-level rules of Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference, this paper discusses its legal status and the legal problems during its working from the point of law and by methods of text analysis, comparison analysis as well as the combination of theoretical discussion and empirical study in the hope of generating a general conclusion.This paper is composed of four chapters using progressive structure. The first chapter introduces basic theory of Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference, including its meaning, creation, origin, historical transform and study meaning of constitutional jurisprudence.The second chapter discusses the legal status of Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference through the analysis the Article 21 in the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the P.R.C. By contrasting Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference to villagers' meeting and villagers' committee, it is concluded that Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference is a standing organ when the villagers' meeting is closed, and a power and policy-making body in villagers' autonomy system.The third chapter probes five problems during the running of Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference with the premise that its legal status is ensured, which are the determination of villagers' representatives, constitutions and conference session, as well as the legal issues in holding, advancing topic for discussion and topic determination.The fourth chapter discusses related systems to Villagers' Autonomous Representative Conference, which are election of villagers' representatives, contact system of villagers' representatives and matching regulations ensuring the operation of Villagers'Autonomous Representative Conference.