Administrative Licensing Law Tutorial

Author: Guan Baoying
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: Administrative is a double-edged sword. If used appropriately, it can create good administrative management order and further adjust various administrative management relationships. If used improperly, it may infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of administrative counterparts and lead to delays and inefficiencies in administrative management. In other words, administrative is indispensable for a country's administrative management. It is a fundamental component of government administrative control measures and is widely used in countries around the world. For example, since the United States formally adopted administrative techniques in 1886, there have been hundreds of industries and fields implementing administrative systems. Japan has more than 50 laws that regulate thousands of systems. At the same time, administrative must be limited and standardized. Developed countries with advanced administrative legal systems generally integrate it into the framework of administrative legal governance. China has long practiced a planned economy, and correspondingly, the government's administrative system has been oriented toward control and comprehensive intervention, which has determined the internal and external manifestations of the generalization and irregularization of administrative in the exercise of administrative power in China. This generalization and irregularization has become more apparent since the comprehensive implementation of the market economy in China, although the severity of the issue has not been sufficiently recognized. By the end of 2001, China had completed the historic task of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), requiring the exercise of administrative power and government legal systems to align with the relevant rules of the WTO and developed countries. The inadequacies of China's current administrative system have become strikingly evident. The 《Protocol on China's Accession to the World Trade Organization》 has made commitments on related administrative matters in multiple provisions, such as Article 7, Paragraph 4, which states: "Prohibitions and restrictions on imports and exports, as well as import and export-related procedures, shall be implemented and enforced only by national competent authorities or local competent authorities authorized by them. Measures that are not implemented or enforced by national competent authorities or authorized local competent authorities shall not be implemented or enforced." Meanwhile, the WTO's relevant rules have imposed strict regulations on member states' administrative, such as Article 6 and 7 of the 《Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures》, which stipulate: "Application procedures and, where applicable, extension application procedures should be kept as simple as possible. Applicants should be given a reasonable period to submit their license applications. If a deadline is set, the period should be at least 21 days, and it should be stipulated that the period may be extended if insufficient applications are received within this timeframe. Applicants should only need to contact one administrative authority related to their application. If it is unavoidable to contact more than one administrative authority, applicants should not need to contact more than three. No application may be rejected due to minor errors in the documents that do not alter the basic data contained therein. Any omissions or errors in the documents or procedures that are clearly not due to intentional fraud or gross negligence shall be subject to penalties no greater than those necessary to issue a warning." These provisions pose a significant challenge to domestic administrative. For the government legal system and administrative system, effectively regulating administrative has become an urgent priority. Since joining the WTO, China has placed greater emphasis on administrative, particularly on matters set by normative documents. In late 2001, the General Office of the State Council held an important meeting to review local legislation and normative documents, and currently, efforts are underway across the country to conduct this review, which will undoubtedly reduce non-standard administrative items to a minimum through these measures. In fact, the central government of China and some local governments are working hard to address specific issues of non-standardization in administrative. For example, on November 30, 2001, the People's Government of Zhejiang Province issued the 《Notice of the People's Government of Zhejiang Province on the Announcement of the List of Administrative Approval Items Reduced and Retained by Provincial-Level Government Departments》, which stipulated: "In line with the reform of government institutions and the adjustment of functions, provincial-level government departments have standardized the existing administrative items. A total of 1,277 approval, review, and ratification items were reduced across 50 departments (including non-governmental departments with approval items), with 869 approval items reduced, representing a reduction rate of 50.6% and 58%, respectively, meeting the provincial government's goal of reducing two-thirds. A total of 628 approval items were retained. The provincial government has approved the reduction and retention of these approval items proposed by provincial-level government departments and hereby announces them for implementation by relevant departments in all regions." (See 《Zhejiang Government Gazette》, 2001, Issue 4, p. 4.) On August 27, 2003, the 《Administrative Law of the People's Republic of China》 was formally adopted. The adoption of this law represents a summary of the preliminary reforms of administrative and serves as a guiding framework for future reforms. Clearly, the implementation of this law does not mean that the reform and improvement of China's administrative system has ended—it has instead initiated deeper reforms of administrative in China. Based on this consideration, when compiling this textbook, we have combined the review of the 《Administrative Law》 with the ideal model of China's administrative, linking the basic principles of the law with administrative cases. This is the distinctive feature of this book.