On March 12, 2026, shortly after China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) adopted the Ecological and Environmental Code (Code) [生态环境法典], the legislature separately announced that it had also upgraded “ecological and environmental law” [生态环境法] to an official “branch of [Chinese] law” [法律部门], joining the existing seven, including civil and commercial law and criminal law.
The 9th NPC (1998–2003) was the first to divide Chinese law into official branches. In fall 1997, the Communist Party announced at its 15th Congress the goal of establishing “a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics” [中国特色社会主义法律体系] by 2010. This task primarily fell to the national legislature, which decided that, to achieve that goal, it must (among other criteria) enact enough legislation to cover all branches of law, which in turn raised the question of how those branches should be defined.
In classifying Chinese laws, the 9th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) opted to focus on “the specific social relationships each law governs and the methods it uses to structure them,” eschewing the earlier approach of categorizing laws by the broad “social activities” they governed, such as political, economic, or cultural activities. It ultimately settled on the following seven branches, which remained essentially unchanged for over 25 years:
- constitution-related laws [宪法相关法];
- civil and commercial laws [民法商法];
- administrative laws [行政法];
- economic laws [经济法];
- social laws [社会法];
- criminal laws [刑法]; and
- litigation and non-litigation procedure laws [诉讼与非诉讼程序法].
(The first branch was originally named “Constitution and related laws” [宪法和相关法]. The 11th NPC (2008–2013), in reevaluating the classification before the official establishment of the Chinese-style system of laws, concluded that the Constitution, as a superior norm, should not be grouped together with statutes and accordingly removed it from the category.)
The scope of most branches should be self-explanatory; this page explains each in more detail. Two are especially relevant here:
- Administrative laws govern the relationships between administrative agencies and regulated entities. They include statutes that govern administrative procedure, impose substantive obligations, or provide remedies for administrative actions.
- Economic laws are, officially, the body of law governing “the State’s micromanagement or regulation of the economy,” including fiscal, tax, competition, trade, and standardization laws. Most are also regulatory statutes and, as the NPCSC recognized, would be categorized as administrative law in some other jurisdictions.
The statutes now categorized as “ecological and environmental law” were previously divided between those two branches. Pollution-control statutes were all categorized as administrative law, natural-resource statutes primarily as economic law, and others depending on whether they prioritize resource use or ecological protection (see chart below for details).
When the NPCSC first announced the seven branches in 1999, it already contemplated that the classification might be updated to reflect social development. In fact, some suggested designating “environmental and natural resources law” as a separate branch from the outset. Similar proposals reemerged during the Code’s legislative process, according to the spokespersons’ office of the NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission (LAC). The office explained the rationale for accepting those proposals following the Code’s passage:
The Ecological and Environmental Code establishes a series of important concepts and principles in China’s ecological and environmental sector. It sets forth a series of statutory schemes and norms that are overarching, foundational, and comprehensive, covering numerous areas such as pollution prevention and control, ecological conservation, and green and low-carbon development. It applies to distinctive subjects and operates mechanisms and methods with their own distinctive characteristics. And there is a relatively solid foundation for administrative management, law enforcement, administration of justice, law popularization, and legal services in the ecological and environmental sector, as well as for theoretical research in ecological and environmental law. Therefore, the timely addition of an “ecological and environmental law” branch within the system of laws is appropriate and advisable.
生态环境法典确立我国生态环境领域一系列重要理念和原则，规定生态环境领域一系列具有统领性、基础性、综合性法律制度规范，内容涵盖污染防治、生态保护、绿色低碳发展等诸多方面，其调整对象、调整机制和调整方法有自身特点，生态环境领域行政管理、执法、司法、普法、法律服务等方面工作和生态环境法学理论研究都有较为扎实的基础。因此，在法律体系中适时增设“生态环境法”部门是适当的、可取的。
While elevating environmental law to a separate branch carries no immediate doctrinal consequences, Lü Zhongmei, a lawmaker and leading environmental law scholar, argues that doing so brings environmental laws from different categories under a common framework guided by the Code’s values and principles. She adds that giving it independent status will bolster environmental law as an academic discipline and help cultivate specialized legal talent in this field.
On March 16, the LAC released an updated official list of Chinese laws. As shown in the chart below, the new branch includes 36 statutes. The last ten will be repealed on August 15, 2026, when the Code takes effect.
You can view the latest bilingual, annotated list of Chinese laws on this page:
With contribution from Taige Hu