Understanding and Applying the Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China

Author: Legal Affairs Department of the State Council, Political and Legal Affairs Bureau, Working Group on the Draft of the Road Traffic Safety Law organized the writing
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-11-01
Features: The Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted by the fifth session of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress on October 28, 2003, and was promulgated by the State President of the People's Republic of China as No. 8 of the State President Decree on the same day, coming into effect on May 1, 2004. This comprehensive law, with 8 chapters, 124 articles, and over 15,000 words, has undergone ten years of refinement and was finally issued in the harvest season of the successful conclusion of the Third Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the triumphant return of the Shenzhou 5 manned spacecraft! This is truly a joyous and commendable event in the history of road traffic safety management and legal development in China. The Road Traffic Safety Law systematically regulates vehicle and driver management, clarifies road traffic conditions and traffic rules for various road traffic subjects, establishes new principles and mechanisms for handling road traffic accidents, strengthens the law enforcement supervision of traffic management departments and traffic police, and improves the legal liabilities for violations of traffic safety management. This law summarizes the past and looks to the future, fully embodying the guiding principles of legal and reasonable, scientific and convenient, and people-centered. The promulgation and implementation of the Road Traffic Safety Law will mark a new era and a new chapter in the management of road traffic safety in our country. Across the nation, a wave of learning and implementing this law will inevitably rise. The Road Traffic Safety Law is complex in structure, rich in content, and filled with specialized terminology, making legislative techniques challenging. To help all sectors of society better understand and apply this law, we have organized the writing of this booklet.