The Research On Legal Problems That Industry Associations Undertake Administrative Examination And Approval Functions

The research on legal problems that industry associations undertake administrative examination and approval functions has important theoretical and practical significance. Theoretical foundation of industry association autonomy comes from the theory of autonomy and the Third Way theory under market failure and government failure. There are many similarities and differences between administrative approval and industry associations’ autonomy for market supervision. Four legal principles can define administrative approval and industry associations’ autonomy, and they are principle of profit measurement, principle of self-discipline priority, principle of comparative advantage, and principle of proportion. Central and local regulatory documents have relevant provisions relating industry associations undertaking approval functions, but central and local regulatory documents hasn’t reach a consensus on approval range of industry associations, and legal boundaries in theory between administrative approval and industry associations autonomy is not clear. Combining four legal principles that define administrative approval and industry associations autonomy, learning from development experience of extraterritorial industry association, we can collate and analyze four types of administrative approval items that associations industry can undertake from both theoretical and practical levels: approval of industry access qualification, approval of industry standard of products(services), approval of industry technology, subsequent approval whose purpose is to strengthen industry supervision. As the example of list of administrative examination and approval published by departments of the State Council, it still has space to further transfer functions of administrative approval. Those industry associations undertake administrative examination and approval may result to problems such as restrictions on competition, so it must be regulated from both internal and external as soon as possible to make sure it can operate legally and effectively within the normal range.