A Review Of The Approval System Of Local Laws And Regulations In Districts And Cities In The Constitution

After the amendment of the Constitution in 2018,Article 100,paragraph 2,of the Constitution adds that the power organs of districts and municipalities may formulate local laws and regulations,but they need to be submitted to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress for approval and implementation.This measure is not only the confirmation and consolidation of the exploration and successful experience of local legislation of the Legislative Law,but also the confirmation of the reservation and approval system of the Legislative Law.The amended provisions of the Constitution only solve one of the problems,that is,the constitutionality of the right to formulate local laws and regulations in the districts and municipalities,so as to clarify that the main body of legislation in the districts and municipalities has complete legislative authority,thus responding to the fact that the nature of the approval system is a means of prior legislative supervision rather than a decision-making power on the substantive content of the legislation in the districts and municipalities.However,there is still a controversy.Since the ratification system is not a link to maintain the constitutionality of the legislation of the districts and municipalities,that is to say,it is not unbreakable.When its actual function is brought into play,it will hinder the deepening reform of the legislation and violate the original intention of the central government to expand the local legislative bodies,it will continue to maintain,strengthen and improve the ratification system.Or will we turn our attention to the filing procedure which can replace the post-mortem supervision and review means of the approval system?Of course,the division between ex ante and ex post is based on the formulation of local laws and regulations of districts and municipalities.As for the main body of legislation in districts and municipalities,the existence of the approval system makes it have to face a difficult problem:how to exercise the power of local legislation?Even in a single state structure,local legislation enjoys relative decentralization within the framework of the Constitution.At the same time,according to Article 2 of the Constitution,all the powers of the People's Republic of China belong to the people.The organs for the people to exercise state power are the National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at all levels.Local people's congresses are representatives of local people's opinions,and the people's own autonomy is also transformed into the autonomy of the people's congresses through the system of the people's congresses.Therefore,the legislative autonomy of the local power organs with districts and municipalities is legitimate.By introducing the approval procedure into the provincial NPC Standing Committee's early intervention in the process of making local legislation,and without the supervision and feedback system for its pre-examination standard and review behavior,it is easy for the approval to fade into the compulsory instillation of self-will and value judgment by the provincial NPC Standing Committee to the legislators of the districts and municipalities,thus undermining the local legislators of the districts and municipalities.Autonomy.In addition,the perfection of the approval system will eventually evolve into the strengthening of the approval power of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress,which will further damage the autonomy of local legislation in districts and municipalities.Moreover,in the new era of rapid change,trying to play a preventive role of correcting and resolving legislative conflicts in advance through the approval system is virtually nothing.However,the role of the approval system in controlling the legislative power of the districts and municipalities is not necessary because the limited legislative power of the districts and municipalities can not meet the actual legislative needs of the people of the districts and municipalities.o sum up,we should amend the Constitution to abolish the approval system,so as to spare energy to improve the filing review system,so as to give full play to the flexibility and effectiveness of ex post review.At the same time,the origin of the problem of local legislation lies in the main body of local legislation itself.It is necessary to give full play to the leading role of local people's congresses in legislation and strengthen the democracy of the process of making local legislation in districts and municipalities.At the same time,we should strengthen external supervision and respect the review of local laws and Regulations of districts and cities by local courts.In this way,multi-pronged efforts are made to urge the local legislative bodies of the districts and municipalities to formulate good laws that truly suit the local reality.