Laws of The People's Republic of China - National People's Congress

National People's Congress

The highest legislative authority is the National People's Congress. It has the power to revise the Constitution and create major legal codes referred to as "basic laws" (基本法律 jīběn fǎlǜ). Apart from this, the NPC also enacts laws (法 fǎ) and decision (决定 juédìng). Decisions may contain legal norms in the form of amendments or supplements to laws. They are often used to delegate lawmaking authority to the State Council.

The nature of the selection delegates to the NPC has meant that popular input into lawmaking at this level is very limited. Because the delegates range from different fields and backgrounds, only some of them are legal professionals or practitioners. Without any formal legal education or knowledge, few of the delegates can make suggestions or give opinions on legislation. Thus, a fairly wide cross-section of the party and government at both central and local levels is given the opportunity to produce input. The NPC Legislative Affairs Commission (法制工作委员会 fǎzhìgōngzuò wěiyuánhuì) is the key organ that are responsible for the law drafting work. Since 1990s, scholars and experts are increasingly entrusted by the NPC Legislative Affairs Commission to form drafting groups to prepare the first draft of the basic laws (this was the case for the Contract Law (1999), the Law of Rights in rem (2007), the Law of Tort Liability (2009) and the Law of the PRC on the Law Applicable to Foreign-related Civil Relations (2010)). The act of legislating is to some extent a game of interest groups.