Order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China
No. 789
The "Regulations on the Filing and Review of Laws and Regulations" were passed at the 39th executive meeting of the State Council on August 19, 2024, and are hereby promulgated to take effect on November 1, 2024.
Prime Minister Li Qiang
August 30, 2024
Article 1: These Regulations are formulated on the basis of the relevant provisions of the "Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China" so as to standardize the work of filing and reviewing laws and regulations, to improve the capacity and quality of filing and review, to strengthen supervision of laws and regulations, and to preserve the unity of the socialist legal system.
Article 2: "Regulations" as used in these Regulations refers to local regulations formulated by the people's congresses and their standing committees of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities divided into districts, and autonomous prefectures in accordance with their legally-prescribed authority and procedures, the special economic zone regulations formulated by the people's congresses and their standing committees of the provinces and municipalities where the special economic zones are located in accordance with their legally-prescribed authority and procedures, and the regulations of the Pudong New Area formulated by the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and its Standing Committee in accordance with their legally-prescribed authority and procedures. The Hainan Provincial People's Congress and its Standing Committee shall formulate the regulations of the Hainan Free Trade Port in accordance with the statutory authority and procedures, and the autonomous regulations and special regulations formulated by the people's congresses of the autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties in accordance with the statutory authority and procedures.
"Rules" as used in these Regulations includes departmental rules and local government rules. Departmental rules refer to the rules formulated by ministries and commissions of the State Council, the People's Bank of China, the National Audit Office, directly subordinate agencies with administrative functions, and institutions prescribed by law (hereinafter collectively referred to as departments of the State Council) in accordance with the law and administrative regulations, decisions and orders of the State Council, and within the scope of their authority, in accordance with the Regulations on Rule-making Procedures. "Local government rules" refers to the rules formulated by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities divided into districts, and autonomous prefectures in accordance with laws, administrative regulations, and local regulations of their respective provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and in accordance with the "Regulations on the Procedures for Formulating Rules".
Article 3: Efforts to record and review regulations and rules shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, persist in being people-centered, persist in having all necessary documents, review all preparations, and correct mistakes, and conduct them in accordance with legally-prescribed authority and procedures.
Article 4: After the promulgation of regulations and rules, they shall be submitted for filing in accordance with the following provisions within 30 days from the date of promulgation:
(1) The standing committees of the people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall report to the State Council for the record of local regulations, autonomous prefecture and county autonomous regulations, and special regulations;
(2) Departmental rules are to be reported to the State Council for the record by the State Council departments, and rules jointly formulated by two or more departments are to be reported to the State Council for the record by the sponsoring department;
(3) The rules of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall be reported to the State Council for the record;
(4) The rules of the people's governments of districted cities and autonomous prefectures shall be reported to the State Council for the record, and at the same time to the people's governments of provinces and autonomous regions for the record;
(5) The regulations of the special economic zone shall be reported to the State Council by the standing committee of the people's congress of the province or municipality where the special economic zone is located, the regulations of the Pudong New Area shall be reported to the State Council by the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress for the record, and the regulations of the Hainan Free Trade Port shall be reported to the State Council by the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial People's Congress for the record.
Article 5: The departments of the State Council and the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities divided into districts, and autonomous prefectures shall perform their duties for the filing of rules in accordance with law, and strengthen the organization and leadership of the work of filing rules.
The legislative affairs bodies of the departments of the State Council, the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the legislative affairs bodies of the people's governments of cities divided into districts and autonomous prefectures, are specifically responsible for the filing of rules and regulations for their respective departments and localities.
Article 6: In accordance with the provisions of these Regulations, the State Council's filing and review work body is responsible for the filing of the State Council's laws and regulations, and is responsible for the filing and review of the State Council, performs its duties of filing and review supervision, completes the filing and review system, and annually reports to the State Council on the filing and review of the previous year's laws and regulations.
Article 7: The State Council's filing and review work body shall, through the filing and review linkage mechanism, strengthen the connection with other organs' filing and review work bodies, and strengthen coordination and cooperation in areas such as dual filing linkage, transfer and handling, solicitation of opinions, consultation and coordination, information sharing, and capacity improvement.
Article 8: Laws and regulations and rules submitted to the State Council for filing in accordance with these Regulations shall be sent directly to the State Council's filing and review work body.
Submission of laws and regulations for filing shall be implemented in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the filing of laws and regulations.
When submitting rules for filing, the filing report, the text of the rules and explanations shall be submitted, and bound into a book in triplicate in accordance with the prescribed format.
When submitting regulations and rules for filing, the electronic version of the regulations and rules shall be submitted at the same time.
Article 9: Where regulations and rules are submitted for filing and comply with the provisions of paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 of Article 2 and Article 8 of these Regulations, the State Council's filing and review work body shall file and register them; where it does not comply with the provisions of Article 2, it shall not be filed and registered; Where the provisions of Article 2 are met but the provisions of paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 of Article 8 are not met, the filing and registration is suspended.
Where the filing and registration is suspended, the filing and review work body of the State Council shall notify the drafting organ to supplement the filing or resubmit the filing; Within 15 days of receiving the notice, the formulating organ shall supplement or re-submit it for filing as required; Where supplementation or re-filing meets the requirements, it shall be filed for registration.
Article 10: The State Council's filing and review work body shall publish a monthly catalogue of laws and regulations and rules that have been filed and registered.
The scope of compilation of edited and published regulations and rules shall be subject to the published catalogue of laws and regulations.
Article 11: The State Council's filing and review work body shall take the initiative to review the laws and regulations submitted for filing, and may conduct special reviews as needed. The active review shall generally be completed within 2 months after the initiation of the review procedure; Where the situation is difficult and complicated, the review period may be appropriately extended in order to ensure the quality of the review.
Where the State Council's filing and review work body discovers that there are common problems in laws and regulations that involve the scope of duties of other organs' filing and review work, it may carry out joint research or joint review with the filing and review work bodies of other organs, and jointly research and put forward review opinions and recommendations.
Article 12: Where state organs, social organizations, enterprises, public institutions, or citizens feel that local regulations are in conflict with administrative regulations, or that rules and other generally binding administrative decisions or orders issued by the people's governments of the State Council's departments, provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, districted cities, or autonomous prefectures are in conflict with laws or administrative regulations, they may submit a written review proposal to the State Council, and the State Council's filing and review work body is to study and submit a disposition opinion, and handle it in accordance with the prescribed procedures.
Article 13 The State Council's filing and review work body shall review the following matters of the laws and regulations and rules submitted to the State Council for filing:
(1) Whether it conforms to the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and the direction of major national reforms;
(2) Whether authority has been exceeded;
(3) Whether the lower law violates the provisions of the higher law;
(4) Where there is an inconsistency between local regulations and departmental rules, or between different rules, on the same matter, and whether the provisions of one or both parties should be changed or revoked;
(5) Whether the provisions of the rules are appropriate, and whether the measures provided are in line with the legislative purpose and actual conditions;
(6) Whether there is a violation of legally-prescribed procedures.
Article 14: Where the State Council's filing and review work body finds it necessary for the relevant State Council departments or local people's governments to submit comments when reviewing laws and regulations, the relevant organs shall reply within the prescribed time limit; Where it is found necessary for the organ formulating the regulations or rules to explain the relevant circumstances, the relevant drafting organ shall give an explanation within the prescribed time period.
Article 15: When reviewing laws and regulations, the State Council's filing and review work body may listen to the opinions of state organs, social organizations, enterprises and public institutions, experts, scholars, and stakeholders through means such as symposiums, debates, hearings, commissioned research, and field research, and pay attention to giving play to the role of the filing and review expert committee.
Article 16: Where upon review, local regulations conflict with administrative regulations, the State Council's filing and review work body is to transfer it to the working body of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for research and handling; When necessary, the State Council shall submit it to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for handling.
Article 17: Where there is an inconsistency between local regulations and departmental rules on the same matter, the State Council filing and review work body is to submit an opinion on handling and report to the State Council for handling in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China".
Article 18: Where, upon review, it is found that the rules should be corrected, the State Council's filing and review work body may, through means such as communicating with the formulating organ or submitting written review opinions, recommend that the drafting organ promptly revise or repeal it; or the State Council's filing and review work body shall submit a disposition opinion to the State Council for a decision, and notify the formulating organ.
Article 19: Where there are inconsistencies between departmental rules or between departmental rules and local government rules on the same matter, the State Council's filing and review work body shall coordinate it; Where a consensus cannot be reached through coordination, the State Council's filing and review work body is to submit a disposition opinion to the State Council for a decision, and notify the formulating organ.
Article 20: The State Council's filing and review work body shall not record invalid rules provided for in the "Regulations on the Procedures for Formulating Rules", and shall notify the formulating organ.
Where there are technical problems in the formulation of rules, the State Council's filing and review work body may submit a disposition opinion to the drafting organ, and the formulating organ is to handle it on its own.
Article 21: Within 30 days of receiving the notice provided for in articles 18, 19, and 20 of these Regulations, the rule-making organ shall report the disposition to the State Council filing and review work body.
Article 22: The organ formulating regulations and rules shall, before January 31 of each year, submit the catalogue of the regulations and rules formulated in the previous year to the State Council for filing and review.
Article 23: Where rules are not submitted for filing or rules are not submitted for filing on time, the State Council's filing and review work body shall notify the drafting organ to submit the report within a set period of time; and where they still do not submit it within the time limit, they are to be notified and ordered to make corrections within a set period of time.
Article 24: The State Council's filing and review work bodies shall strengthen contact and guidance for the filing and review of rules by the legislative affairs bodies of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and promote the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government to improve the capacity and quality of their work on the filing and review of rules through means such as training and case guidance.
Article 25: The people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall, in accordance with law, strengthen supervision of rules and other administrative decisions and orders issued by lower-level administrative organs that are generally binding, and establish relevant filing and review systems in accordance with the relevant provisions of these Regulations, to preserve the unity of the socialist legal system and ensure the correct implementation of laws and regulations.
Article 26: These Regulations take effect on November 1, 2024. The Regulations on the Filing of Laws and Regulations promulgated by the State Council on December 14, 2001 shall be repealed at the same time.
(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 5)
Source: People's Daily