Research On The Standard Of Administrative Discretion

Discretion is fundamental to administration in all aspects. The key question on administrative law is setting a standard on administrative discretion. Traditionally, the control on administrative discretion is imposed by legislation and justice. A theory of administrative internal control on administrative discretion is now a favorable topic. The theory of internal control injected new energy on modern administrative law. It set standard on administrative discretion by refining laws in detail, thus impose tight control on administrative discretion.Under the background of China’s policy on building a country ruled by law, huge amounts of standard on administrative discretion are created. These standards are playing an important role in China’s administration and have become common. Chinese government stated in a white paper on pushing the pace in building a law-ruled country in 2004. On Feb.4,2004, a city level police department issued its own standard on administrative discretion for the first time. Since then, various standards are presented by all branches and levels of China’s government, in order to refine their administrative discretion.This paper firstly analyzed the control mechanisms, standard and principle of administrative discretion. Then analyzed the positive effects of current standards, which are:1. adhering to Communist Party’s ruling principles,2. harsh control on administration,3. improving efficiency on administration,4. justice for individual cases. Current standards do have some cons:1. too many standards set by different branches and levels of government on a single stipulation,2. different criteria on standards,3. lacking supervise. This paper also proved the legality of those standards on China’s unique legislation and legal explanation regime. Those standards are effective both inside and outside of China’s administrative powers. This paper finally discussed the problems existing on the standards of administrative discretion, and proposed opinions on improvement.