Discussion On Improving Local People's Congresses Petition Work

The polity of the People's Republic of China is the system of people's congress, a democratic representation framework under socialism. In 2006, National People's Congress passed the Law on Supervision, giving the people's congress a bigger role in supervising the work of government and judicial organs. Apart from the systems of administrative remedy and judicial relief, China's petition system explores another opportunity for right relief and has developed into a viable option for Chinese public and those vulnerable groups in safeguarding their legal rights. Increasing number of petitions Kunshan local people's congress received in recent years shows more social contradictions and problems in Kunshan's development on one hand, and a more prominent role of the people's congress as an organ of state power on the other. The people's congress conducts its work on dealing with petitions just for the purpose of ensuring the order of public interest appeal and political participation through undertaking the supervision functions of the people's congress and its standing committee and combining direct and indirect democracy.After petitions reached a peak in China between 2002 and 2004, the academic community and political sphere fell apart on the issue of future development of China's petition system. However, as an important channel of interest expression and defense for the public, petition system is not likely to be replaced in a short period. The petition system and power of the people's congress, if combined together, may exert external supervision over the administrative and judicial powers and make sure governments, courts and procuratorate at all levels carry out work by law and promote judicial fairness. From a perspective of constitutionalism, the paper presents a case study of Kunshan's work on petition to analyze the challenges local people's congresses face in this regard and explore an effective way to strike a balance between the petition work of local congresses and their supervision responsibilities in an effort to ensure legal rights of the public.