On Constitutional Review System In China

As the fundamental law of the country,the Constitution has the highest legal status,legal authority and legal effect,and all legal norms can not conflict with it.However,in the process of implementing the Constitution,unconstitutional acts occur from time to time,seriously striking the authority and dignity of the Constitution.In order to correct the unconstitutional acts in time and ensure the effective implementation of the Constitution,the Constitution needs a set of hard teeth,that is,an effective constitutionality review system.As an important institutional device to safeguard the unity and harmony within the legal system and the rights of citizens,constitutionality review system is generally set up in modern countries according to the national conditions.The constitutionality review mechanism is stipulated in the Constitution and the Legislative Law of our country.However,due to various restrictions,there is no real constitutionality review practice in our country so far.Its basic function is "almost silent".Therefore,it is particularly important to improve the constitutionality review system and promote the constitutionality review work in China.The first part outlines the typical constitutional review system model in modern countries,namely the American common court review system,the French constitutional committee system and the German constitutional court system.Although China has not established a typical review model,it has made some provisions in the Constitution and the law.This paper mainly introduces the content of the constitutionality review system from three aspects: the subject of the review,the object of the review and the procedure of the review.The second part introduces the awkward situation of the constitutional review system in China,which has been in a useless place for a long time,and explores the reasons.In terms of system content,the Constitution and the Legislative Law and other normative legal documents have made certain provisions on the subject of constitutional review,the qualification,object and procedure of initiating constitutional review,but these Provisions are complicated and less operable,which makes it difficult to provide reliable basis for practical work.From a practical point of view,the review work is "duck floating",the initiative review lacks publicity,and the outside world is difficult to know;in the passive review,the subject who has the right to request the review has never exercised this power,while the review proposals put forward by citizens,organizations and so on are sinking into the sea.In addition,the frustration in practice also seriously hampers the enthusiasm of all parties to promoteconstitutional review.The third part introduces the new progress of the constitutional review system in China.The main line of this progress is to advance the constitutional review with the filing review,taking the amendment of the Legislative Law in 2015 as a watershed.In terms of system construction,the procedure of constitutional review has been amended and perfected in legislation,and the operability has been strengthened.Meanwhile,working methods have been formulated within the review organ to strengthen communication and cohesion.At the end of 2017,the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress(NPC)heard the report of the Legal Work Committee on the work of filing and reviewing,which marked a breakthrough in the situation of "duck floating".In 2018,the constitutional amendment officially renamed the "Law Committee" as the "Constitution and Law Committee",clearly stipulating that it has the duty of "promoting constitutional review",which initially solved the institutional problems of constitutional review and is a significant progress in the work of constitutional review.The fourth part,based on the existing resources of constitutional review system in China,focuses on the improvement of the review procedure,focusing on three aspects,and puts forward some suggestions in order to activate constitutional review as soon as possible.The constitutionality review and the legitimacy review belong to the filing review,but the problem of blocking the constitutionality review by the legitimacy review is prominent for a long time.If we want to break through this situation,we can absorb the legitimacy review by the constitutionality review and effectively control the sinking situation of the constitutionality review.The citizen's review suggestion is the protagonist of initiating the review procedure and the source of power for constitutional review.It needs to provide a good system guarantee for it.In the frequent activities of law application,the court has the most say on whether the content conforms to the Constitution and the superior law.It combines the advantages of constitutionality review and judicial review,and forms a linkage working mechanism between the review organ and the court in constitutionality review,which can effectively correct the internal defects of laws and regulations.