Administrative Law and Administrative Procedure Law Teaching Regulations

Author: China Renmin University Press
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-01
Features: Legal systems are an indispensable choice for modern nations to seek stability, develop society, and advance civilization. The presence or absence, quality or deficiency, and observance or neglect of law are all critical, as they directly impact the prosperity or decline of nations, ethnic groups, and societies. At the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, "rule of law" and "building a socialist rule-of-law state" were adopted as national strategies and incorporated into constitutional amendments through the National People's Congress. The 16th National Congress reaffirmed the strengthening of socialist rule-of-law construction and proposed the goal of "forming a socialist rule-of-law system with Chinese characteristics by 2010."
The development of a nation's legal system depends on the political and economic conditions of the entire society, as well as the development of legal education. The prosperity of a nation's legal culture is primarily measured by its people's strong legal awareness and firm legal faith. Within society as a whole, there must be an intellectual class with a certain level of legal literacy. From the perspective of legal education, "law" as educational content should not only encompass law as studied and theorized but also include law as belief, deeply rooted in people's hearts, and law as a tool for practical use. Therefore, legal education consists of several distinct levels. At the top is legal education, which cultivates and nurtures specialized legal talents. Its target audience includes future legal scholars and specialized legal workers, as well as governance talents. Its content should be a systematic and rigorous legal knowledge system and training in legal research methods to varying degrees. Its carriers are specialized legal education and research institutions. The foundation of legal education is legal popularization for the general public, targeting ordinary people from different strata and cultural backgrounds. Its content includes basic legal knowledge and fundamental rule-of-law concepts, with diverse and extensive forms of education to achieve widespread dissemination and promotion of these ideas, aiming to cultivate a disciplined public morality and social norms through legal concept popularization. The intermediate link connecting the foundation and apex of legal education in society is the overall improvement of the legal literacy of the intellectual class, which is the key area where national legal education needs to focus. The legal literacy of the intellectual class directly determines the success of national legal culture construction, and the smooth implementation of the "great national system" of legal institutions in all social fields relies on this as well. The success or failure of legal education at this level should be the primary standard for measuring the overall success of legal education.
For this level of legal education, the target audience should be a broad range of college students and numerous non-legal professional practitioners. Its content should include general legal knowledge applicable to practical work and the reinforcement of rule-of-law awareness. Its form should be public legal courses in ordinary universities and continuing education for practitioners.
Currently, among China's vast intellectual class, in addition to specialized legal talents, those in economics and management urgently need to master legal knowledge, constitute the largest proportion of the intellectual class, and are widely distributed across various fields of socialist modernization. This includes practitioners engaged in economic and management work on different fronts and students majoring in economics and management in ordinary universities. They already or will play a crucial role in China's socialist modernization. Implementing legal education tailored to their fields and work, and significantly improving their legal literacy, will undoubtedly have practical significance for their current and future work, and will also directly contribute to enhancing the legal literacy of intellectuals as a whole.
Given these understandings, Renmin University of China Law School, School of Law at the University of International Business and Economics, and School of Law at Central South University of Economics and Law, in collaboration with China Renmin University Press, have, after long deliberation and preparation, decided to compile a series titled "21st Century Concise Textbooks on Legal Applications for Economics and Management." These textbooks are edited and published by China Renmin University Press.
This series selects four legal departments closely related to economics and management—civil and commercial law, economic law, administrative law, and international economic law—and divides them into four series. Each series includes three parts: "Theoretical Overview," "Typical Cases," and "Teaching Regulations." They are grounded in the basic logical framework of departmental law while emphasizing practical relevance, analyzing and explaining several cases and regulations closely linked to economics and management. The series adheres to the consistent high standards of writing set by China Renmin University Press. The "Theoretical Overview" sections are independently written by leading scholars in their respective fields, who also lead the writing of the "Typical Cases" and "Teaching Regulations" sections, aiming to provide readers with a series of authoritative, innovative, targeted, and applicable textbooks through a strong academic team.
With the successful publication of this series, we believe that we will have the ability to continuously contribute more achievements and dedicate our efforts to the glorious prospects of China's legal civilization.
This is the preface.
November 2002 Preface Deng Ronglin
We are living in an era filled with science, democracy, and the rule of law. Economics dominates the global landscape, reshapes values and lifestyles, and influences politics, military, culture, and foreign affairs. In short, economics guides the direction of progress.
Objectively speaking, the planning and operation of economic affairs, whether macro or micro, governmental or corporate, largely manifest as management activities. Modern management is a conscious process that achieves specific economic and social goals by coordinating internal and external stakeholder relationships based on principles such as efficiency, rules, accountability, human-centeredness, and systems. Among these, efficiency is the management goal, rules are the management basis, and accountability is the management means. Without rule awareness and a basis, accountability cannot be implemented, human-centered principles will be abandoned, and management systems will become disordered, ultimately leading to a significant reduction in expected benefits. Therefore, rule-based management is extremely important.
As behavioral norms, rules both grant people freedom of action and impose constraints, serving as a unity of freedom and restraint, rights and responsibilities. In a nation's rule system, law holds the dominant position and is a crucial tool for government management of social affairs. As explicit and rigid rules, law reflects the management ideas and models of the ruling class. Therefore, incorporating economic management activities into the rule of law is a institutionalized way for a government to exercise its economic management authority.
Looking back at the reform process, China has transitioned from a moral economy to a rule-of-law economy, with increasing democratic elements in economic management. In the early stages of reform, influenced by rule-of-law thinking, practices that ignored the law, such as "dictatorial contracts," approval bottlenecks, arbitrary tax reductions, and corporal punishment of employees, were common. With the development of the commodity economy and the improvement of economic legal systems, public legal awareness has. On one hand, citizens and organizations have gradually learned to use legal weapons to protect their legitimate rights and interests. On the other hand, government economic management agencies have increasingly recognized the importance of rule-based management and social participation in management.
In line with the reform process, China's constitutional amendments in 1993 and 1999 incorporated "the state implements a socialist market economy" and "implementing the rule of law to build a socialist rule-of-law state" into the fundamental law, clarifying the goals, principles, and direction of reform. Accordingly, the rule of law in economic management has entered a new historical period.
According to the target model of the market economy system, the government, enterprises, and the market are inseparable elements of the system. The government promotes sustainable, rapid, and stable economic development through macro-control and market management, while ensuring rule-based and efficient administration. It must first institutionalize its economic management authority (responsibilities) and procedures through administrative law and economic law. Government macro-control policies, such as plans, monetary policy, taxation, interest rates, industrial structure, statistics, national investment, foreign exchange, and import/export management, as well as market management measures, such as maintaining fair competition, protecting consumer rights, standard management, and cultivating the property rights trading market, all need to be legally defined. Economic management agencies at all levels and their public officials should govern according to law and administer with integrity.
Correspondingly, enterprises are the foundation of the market economy. Enterprises must not only achieve profit goals but also fulfill social responsibilities. As a collection of diverse stakeholder relationships, enterprises must manage many aspects legally, such as obtaining approval and registration for establishment, organizational structure, changes in organizational form, and market exit; conducting daily operations in labor, land use, product quality, finance, personnel, taxation, and trade unions in accordance with the law; and handling legal matters such as contracts, intellectual property, product quarantine, bank settlements, and customs supervision in foreign trade. It is no exaggeration to say that modern enterprises live in a sea of law.
With China's entry into the WTO, economic management activities have gained an international dimension, with adhering to rules becoming a major challenge for the government, enterprises, and the market after joining. The WTO spirit advocates fair, just, and open market transactions, which requires the rule of law in economic management and reduces the traces of rule-of-law thinking. Therefore, government economic management agencies must lead by example in establishing legal awareness and governing according to law. The public and economic organizations should actively learn the law, protect their rights and interests while supervising and participating in economic management activities, and actively promote the development of China's socialist legal system. For a long time, foreign investors have been most concerned about the stability and transparency of the investment legal environment in China, rather than policy incentives. This is also a common issue for domestic investors in the new context. Therefore, rule-based economic management is imperative. The 16th National Congress report, while elaborating on building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, proposed that "the basic strategy of the rule of law is fully implemented, and the political, economic, and cultural rights and interests of the people are effectively respected and protected" as a legal goal. At the same time, it emphasized the need to "strengthen legal publicity and education, improve the legal literacy of the entire population, especially enhance the legal awareness and ability to govern according to law of public officials. Party members and cadres, especially leaders, should set an example in abiding by the Constitution and the law." This is an important part of strengthening the construction of socialist rule of law.
China Renmin University Press's planning and publication of this series of "21st Century Concise Textbooks on Legal Applications for Economics and Management" undoubtedly meets the demands of the times. The series is divided into four series: civil and commercial law, economic law, administrative law, and international economic law. Each series is further divided into three parts: "Theoretical Overview," "Typical Cases," and "Teaching Regulations," covering most of the legal issues relevant to students in economics and management majors at universities, as well as economic management personnel in state organs, various enterprises, and companies during their work, study, and research.
As an introductory legal textbook, each series' "Theoretical Overview" section systematically and concisely introduces the basic legal knowledge of the relevant disciplines. On this basis, the series textbooks also include a "Typical Cases" section, combining theory and practice to guide legal application, which is an important way for non-law professionals to learn the law. Strengthening legal awareness is the foundational work for building a rule-of-law state and also an objective requirement for scientific management. Therefore, I hope that readers in economics and management majors will study the law with a sense of responsibility to the times, apply the law in practice, and spread the spirit of the rule of law, contributing together to the development of China's legal system.
This is the preface.
November 2002