On The Role Of Procuratorial Organs In Administrative Public Interest Litigation

After two years of trial operation,China officially established a system of administrative public interest lawsuits filed by procuratorates in 2017.Since the establishment of the administrative public interest litigation system,there has been controversy regarding the role of the procuratorate.Although China has promulgated relevant judicial interpretations and judicial documents to guarantee the implementation of the administrative public interest litigation system,in practice,the role of procuratorate in administrative public interest litigation is still unclear and needs further exploration.The procuratorate have different doctrines regarding the legal role of procuratorate in administrative public interest litigations,namely,the plaintiff's argument,the public interest representative's opinion,the public prosecutor's opinion,the legal supervisor's opinion,and dual status theory.According to the judicial interpretations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate,administrative public interest litigations are divided into pre-litigation procedures and litigation procedures.The procuratorate supervise the administrative actions of administrative organs by sending procuratorial recommendations during the pre-litigation stage.The People's Procuratorate filed a public interest lawsuit as the public interest lawsuit prosecutor.However,administrative public interest litigation is different from general administrative litigation,and there are differences in the subject of prosecution and the scope of the case.Although the procuratorate's participation in administrative public interest litigation is in the status of the plaintiff,the procuratorate is different from the general administrative counterpart.Their status,rights and obligations are also different.Clarifying the legal role of the procuratorate at each stage of administrative public interest litigation will help the procuratorate to achieve the legal supervision function and also help the purpose and role of administrative public interest litigations.Based on the analysis of the legal role of procuratorate participation in administrative public interest litigation and the investigation of foreign situations,based on the analysis of China's administrative public interest litigation system,the distinction between the subject of the administrative public interest litigation and the plaintiff's qualifications.The subject of filing can be plural,and the plaintiff's qualifications should be unitary.The subject of the filing has expanded from the procuratorate to interested citizens and social welfare organizations,while the subjects with plaintiff qualifications are limited to the prosecutorial organs.As the proper subject of administrative public interest litigation,the procuratorate participate in multiple stages of administrative public interest litigation from the pre-litigation stage to the entire administrative public interest litigation.This article analyzes the procedural organs' participation in administrative public interest litigation in a pre-litigation procedure,first instance procedure,second instance procedure,trial supervision procedure,and enforcement procedure,and analyzes its legal role in administrative public interest proceedings in a phased way.In the pre-litigation procedure,the procuratorate is in the position of a legal supervisor,ensuring the prosecution by clarifying the scope of application of pre-litigation recommendations,establishing a pre-litigation case screening procedure to ensure the connection of pre-litigation procedures with administrative public interest litigation requests,and standardizing pre-litigation procedures The identity of the legal supervisor of the agency in the pre-litigation procedure;in the first instance procedure,unlike the plaintiff in general administrative litigation,the procuratorate is in the status of "special plaintiff".Liability and other methods to ensure the identity of the "prosecutor" of the procuratorate;in the second instance proceedings,the procuratorate is in the position of appellants;in the trial supervision process,the procuratorate is in the position of protest subjects;Status of legal supervisors.At the same time,through the design and construction of the system,this article guarantees the role and function of the procuratorate agency's legal role in different litigation stages.