The following laws and decisions take effect on January 1, 2019:

• Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution [土壤污染防治法];
• E-Commerce Law [电子商务法];
• amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law [个人所得税法];
• amendment to the Rural Land Contracting Law [农村土地承包法];
• revised People’s Courts Organic Law [人民法院组织法];
• revised People’s Procuratorates Organic Law [人民检察院组织法];
• a decision (discussed here) that vests in the Supreme People’s Court second-instance appellate jurisdiction over all technical civil and administrative intellectual property cases (including patent cases);
• a decision (discussed here) that authorizes the State Council for the following four years to allow local governments to issue bonds within a certain percentage of their new debts limits each year before the NPC approves the State budget in March of that year.

The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is soliciting public comments on the draft Foreign Investment Law [外商投资法] through February 24, 2019. We also expect it to seek public comments on the following draft bills in early January:

• draft revision to the Judges Law [法官法];
• draft revision to the Procurators Law [检察官法];
• draft Vaccine Administration Law [疫苗管理法];
• draft Resource Tax Law [资源税法];
• draft amendment to the Patent Law [专利法];
• draft amendments to the Land Management Law [土地管理法] and Urban Real Estate Administration Law [城市房地产管理法].

It may also release the Part on Contracts [合同编] and Part on Tort Liability [侵权责任编] of the draft Civil Code for public comments.

The NPCSC will meet for its next regularly scheduled session in late February 2019.

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