Economic Zone Management Committee Legal Issues Research

The inception and development of Economic Special Administrative Zone (ESAZ) is closely related to the Open and Reform Policy and plays a significant role in the economic development and urbanization. The ESAZ is usually administered by a Management Committee which functions on behalf of local government. The committee consists of several bodies which deal with specific matters. Thirty years has passed since the first ESAZ was set up in China, but so far not even one law has taken shape to regulate ESAZ and the committee and with the development of ESAZ, many problems of the Committee began to loom large. The ambiguity of legal status and functioning of the committee in fact put checks on the further flourishing of the ESAZ, among which the ambiguity of legal status is the contention whether it is supposed to be defined as "an organization authorized by law or regulation" or "subdivision". Therefore, further study of the legal status of ESAZ in view of the status quo is to be done. The legal ambiguity results from the flaw of the administrative system of China, for we took after the legal body concept of western countries with no regard to its essence and nature. After thorough study of foreign public legal person system(esp. that of France and Germany), I hold that the ESAZ meet the standard of public law system and thus public law system can be applied. This application will not only solve the dilemma of the above mentioned ambiguity but also will improve the legal system of China, thus facilitate the development of ESAZ.