Legal Considerations Of Interest Balance In Government Information Disclosure

The regulations of the People's Republic of China on government information disclosure came into force on May 1,2008.As the first administrative regulation to regulate the information disclosure of our government,the Regulations are of great significance to improve the level of governing the country by law.In particular,the 51 of the Regulations stipulates the government information disclosure litigation system,which clarifies the right of citizens,legal persons or other organizations to file lawsuits when they think their right to obtain government information is infringed.Through the trial and judgment of many government information disclosure cases,the transparency of government work is further improved,and citizens' right to know is effectively guaranteed.However,with the deepening of practice,some problems are gradually exposed.Article 15 of the Regulations stipulates the principle of balance of interests.As trade secrets and personal privacy involve the legitimate rights and interests of third parties,they are exceptions to the disclosure of government information.When the non-disclosure of relevant information will have a significant impact on the public interests,trade secrets and personal privacy should also be made public.However,compared with the legitimate rights and interests of third parties,public interests are difficult to be protected due to the uncertainty of the subject of rights and the unclear content of rights.In the work of government information disclosure,as long as the legitimate rights and interests of a third party are involved,administrative organs tend not to disclose relevant information,and do not carry out interest measurement or interest measurement is too rough.After entering the litigation,the judicial review intensity of the court is insufficient,which affects the effective implementation of the balance of interests.In view of the above problems,this paper according to the proposed problems,analysis of the problems,the idea of solving the problems to carry out research.The first part of the paper briefly introduces the legislation and judicial status of interest balance in government information disclosure.For the balance of interests in information disclosure,our country mainly regulates it through administrative regulations,and further clarifies the relevant burden of proof and legal responsibility of administrative organs in the subsequent relevant judicial interpretation.The second part of the paper specifically analyses the main problems of interest balance in legislation and judicature.The main problems of legislation are the unclear stipulation of the duty to measure the interests of the administrative organs,the absence of the stipulation of the legal liability for the failure of the administrative organs to fulfill the duty to measure the interests,and the absence of the stipulation of the legal liability for the damage of the public interests caused by the improper balance of interests of the administrative organs.The main problems in judicature are that the identification of the legitimate rights and interests of third parties by administrative organs and the proof in the process of interest measurement are insufficient,and the intensity of court review in different cases is inconsistent.The third part of the paper analyses the reasons why the balance of interests has not been effectively implemented from the legislative and judicial levels,including the incomplete legislation of information disclosure,the difficulty of identifying and measuring interests,the difficulty of grasping the intensity of judicial review,and the low professional quality of some judicial personnel.The fourth part of the paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote the effective implementation of the balance of interests,mainly including improving legislation,unified review standards,and improving the quality of judicial personnel.