The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) concluded its 10th session on Tuesday. It adopted comprehensive changes to the two laws governing judges and procurators and approved relatively minor amendments to eight other laws, three of which aim to enhance intellectual property protections. Below we summarize each in turn.
Continue reading “NPCSC Revises Judicial Personnel Laws, Amends Trademark and Unfair Competition Laws”Tag: Judges Law
NPCSC Session Watch: Securities Law Revision, Civil Code & Foreign Investment Law Implementation
The Council of Chairpersons met last Friday and decided to convene the 10th session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) from April 20 to 23. The Council also approved the NPCSC’s 2019 legislative and oversight plans, which we expect to be released after the session. Per the Council’s decision, the NPCSC this month will review eight legislative bills. Below we take a brief look at each.
Continue reading “NPCSC Session Watch: Securities Law Revision, Civil Code & Foreign Investment Law Implementation”NPCSC Seeks Public Comments on Draft Patent Law Amendment, Two Civil Code Parts, Vaccine Administration Law & Four Other Bills (UPDATED)
UPDATE (Jan. 27, 2019): For a summary of and comments on the key provisions of the draft Judges Law revision, please refer to this post on the Supreme People’s Court Monitor.
The NPC Standing Committee is soliciting public comments on the following eight bills through February 3, 2019:
- second draft revision to the Procurators Law 检察官法修订草案二次审议稿
- second draft revision to the Judges Law 法官法修订草案二次审议稿
- second draft of the Contracts Part of the Civil Code 民法典合同编草案二次审议稿
- second draft of the Tort Liability Part of the Civil Code 民法典侵权责任编草案二次审议稿
- draft Vaccine Administration Law 疫苗管理法草案
- draft Resource Tax Law 资源税法草案
- draft amendment to the Patent Law 专利法修正案草案
- draft amendment to the Land Management Law and the Urban Real Estate Administration Law 土地管理法、城市房地产管理法修正案草案
All linked files are PDF documents in Chinese. English translations will be linked to if and when available. The accompanying explanations of these drafts can be read here (PDF).
Continue reading “NPCSC Seeks Public Comments on Draft Patent Law Amendment, Two Civil Code Parts, Vaccine Administration Law & Four Other Bills (UPDATED)”NPCSC Session Watch: Foreign Investment, Patent, Resource Tax, Local Government Debt & More
The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will convene for its last session in 2018 from December 23 to 29, the Council of Chairmen decided on Friday. This session is another of those end-of-year, week-long NPCSC sessions that we have come to love (and definitely not hate). We counted 14 legislative bills plus several more decisions and reports on the agenda. And there is absolutely no festivity-related reason why we would rather not work around that period. Because we expect six of those bills to pass on December 29, we will publish summaries of them after the session concludes rather than in this session preview. Here is our rundown on the agenda.
NPC Calendar: December 2018 (UPDATED)
UPDATE (Dec. 5, 2018): The State Council’s executive meeting, its top decision-making body, approved a draft amendment to the Patent Law [专利法] on Wednesday (December 5). The draft amendment may have replaced a draft revision to the Law that was released for public comments in 2015 for it seems to make similar changes as the draft revision (based on the brief press release of the State Council’s meeting). The NPCSC will likely review the draft amendment at its upcoming session.
The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is expected to convene for its seventh session late this month. The Council of Chairmen is expected to meet in mid-December to decide on the dates and agenda of the session.
According to the NPCSC’s 2018 legislative plan, the following bills have been tentatively scheduled for the upcoming session:
- draft revision to the Judges Law [法官法];
- draft revision to the Procurators Law [检察官法];
- draft Resource Tax Law [资源税法];
- draft revision to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste [固体废物污染环境防治法] and amendments to (unspecified) related laws;
- draft Foreign Investment Law [外国投资法].
The draft Farmland Occupancy Tax Law [耕地占用税法] and Vehicle Acquisition Tax Law [车辆购置税法] will likely return for their second (and likely final) round of deliberations.
The State Council may also submit for review a draft Vaccine Administration Law [疫苗管理法] (on which it solicited public comments for two weeks in November).
The pilot reform to combine the maternity insurance fund and the basic medical insurance fund will expire on December 31. We expect the State Council to either request an extension of the pilot or submit an amendment to the Social Insurance Law [社会保险法].
The pilot reform that allows the rights to use cultivated land and house sites [宅基地] to be mortgaged will also expire on December 31. The State Council may submit amendments to the Property Law [物权法] and the Guaranty Law [担保法] to codify the reform. Alternatively, it may request yet another extension—the pilot was already extended once for one year in late 2017—until the Civil Code (which will replace those two laws) is enacted.
Another land reform pilot—which allows the transfer of the right to use collectively owned land for construction [集体建设用地使用权]; adjusts the approval authority over house sites; and revises the standards for compensating the expropriation of collectively owned land—will expire, again, on December 31. The State Council will likely submit an amendment to the Land Management Law [土地管理法] and possibly also an amendment to the Urban Real Estate Administration Law [城市房地产管理法] (certain provisions of these two laws are being suspended during the pilot).
Lastly, a pilot reform of the civil service system will expire on January 1, 2019. As the NPCSC is already reviewing a draft revision to the Civil Servants Law [公务员法] that codifies the reform, we expect it to extend the pilot until the revision is adopted.
The NPCSC is also expected to adopt a decision to convene the 2019 NPC session (the 2nd Session of the 13th NPC) at its upcoming meeting.
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NPC Standing Committee Releases 2018 Legislative Plan
The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) on Friday released its annual legislative plan for 2018. As usual, the plan is divided into two sections—the first listing specific legislative projects slated for discussion at the NPCSC’s remaining five sessions in 2018, and second setting forth general guiding principles for its legislative work this year. We will discuss only the first part in this post.
Continue reading “NPC Standing Committee Releases 2018 Legislative Plan”
NPCSC Releases Seven Draft Laws for Public Comments: December 29, 2017 (UPDATED)
UPDATE (Jan. 19, 2018): This post has been updated with links to an English translation of the draft Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law.
UPDATE (Jan. 4, 2018): This post has been updated with links to English translations of the draft revisions to the Procurators Law and Judges Law, and to the draft People’s Assessors Law.
The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) on December 29 released the following draft laws for public comments until January 27, 2018:
- Procurators Law (Draft Revision) 检察官法修订草案 (ENGLISH)
- Judges Law (Draft Revision) 法官法修订草案 (ENGLISH)
- People’s Assessors Law (Draft) 人民陪审员法草案 (ENGLISH)
- International Criminal Justice Assistance Law (Draft) 国际刑事司法协助法草案
- Basic Healthcare and Health Promotion Law (Draft) 基本医疗卫生与健康促进法草案
- Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law (Draft) 英雄烈士保护法草案 (ENGLISH)
- Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law (Draft for 2nd Deliberation) 土壤污染防治法草案二次审议稿
All linked files are PDF documents in Chinese. English translations will be posted here when they become available. The NPCSC has also released explanations of these draft laws, which can be viewed at this link.
To submit comments online, please refer to these instructions. The “Occupations” dropdown list for the draft revisions to the Judges Law and the Procurators Law includes a new top item: “Judges, procurators, lawyers, or other legal practitioners” (法官检察官律师等法律从业人员).
Comments can also be mailed to the NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission (全国人大常委会法制工作委员会) at the following address:
Chinese: 北京市西城区前门西大街1号 邮编：100805
English: No. 1 West Qianmen Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing 100805
Please clearly write “[BILL NAME IN CHINESE]征求意见” on the envelope.
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NPCSC to End 2017 with Blockbuster December Session (UPDATED)
UPDATE (Dec. 23, 2017): The NPCSC has released the finalized agenda and daily schedule of the ongoing session. This agenda, unlike the agendas of past December sessions since the early 1990s, does not include a draft decision to convene the NPC session of the following year (which would be the 1st Session of the 13th NPC). This is highly unusual. But the significance (if any) of the absence of that decision is not clear at this point. Elsewhere, in a report on the draft Supervision Law (as reported by state media), the NPC Law Committee seemed to be deliberately avoiding referring explicitly to the 1st Session of the 13th NPC: It recommended that the NPCSC submit the draft Supervision Law to “a session of the NPC” (全国人民代表大会会议) for deliberation, short of identifying the specific NPC session (unlike what it had done before). Through this update we merely wish to point out these irregularities. It is still premature to speculate whether the 2018 NPC session will convene as usual on March 5 because the Council of Chairmen could always add a convening decision to the agenda (though it doesn’t explain why it hasn’t done so already). In any event, we will find out on December 27 when the ongoing NPCSC session closes.
As predicted, the Council of Chairmen met on Thursday (December 14) to set the dates and propose an agenda for the second last session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC). According Xinhua’s report of the Council’s meeting, an astonishing 12 legislative bills (among others) were submitted to the upcoming six-day NPCSC session (December 22–27) for deliberation, the most ever since the start of the 12th NPC. Most of these bills are worth paying close attention to because of their subject matters, as we will discuss below.
Continue reading “NPCSC to End 2017 with Blockbuster December Session (UPDATED)”
29th Session Watch Pt. 1: NPCSC to Consider Revisions of Laws Organizing China’s Judicial System
The Council of Chairmen met on August 18 and decided that the 29th—and fourth last—session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will take place from August 28 to September 1. The agenda proposed by the Council of Chairmen is explained below.