Transparency and rule of law workshop by renmin law school

• Author: Holly McKenzie
• Pages: 401-403

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 11 JUNE 2016 NO. 2

DOI 10.3868/s050-005-016-0021-2

ACADEMIC NEWS

TRANSPARENCY AND RULE OF LAW WORKSHOP BY RENMIN LAW SCHOOL

On December 13, 2015, the Center for Common Law at Renmin University of China

Law School held a workshop entitled “Transparency and The Rule of Law” in Shenzhen,

China. The workshop was jointly organized by the Center for Common Law, the China

Behavior Law Association, the Great Britain China Center and Shenzhen Lawyers

Association. It covered the topic of legislative and judicial transparency.

A number of experts from the Chinese legal and judicial community participated in

the event, including high-level representatives from the Legislative Affairs Committee of

the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the China Law Society, the

Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Shenzhen Justice Bureau,

Shenzhen Lawyers Association, Tsinghua University and others, in addition to Renmin

University Professors HE Jiahong, SHI Yan’an and JIANG Dong. Chinese experts were

joined by their UK counterparts, the Rt Hon Lord Justice Bean, the chairman of the Law

Commission of England and Wales, and Robert Seabrook QC, the eminent barrister,.

ZHANG Mingqi, the Vice-President of the China Behavior Law Association,

alongside JIANG Xilin, Head of the Shenzhen Justice Bureau, GAO Shu, President of

Shenzhen Lawyers Association, and Professor HE Jiahong provided the opening remarks.

Together they welcomed guests to the workshop and emphasized the importance of

legislative and judicial transparency to the development of the rule of law in China. The

experts highlighted the great progress China has already made in the last 40 years, but

acknowledged that there is still work to be done.

The first session addressed transparency in legislation. HUANG Taiyun, Director of

the Research Institute of Committee of Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China

Central Committee urged for a more scientific approach to be taken in the formulation of

the laws, in order for them to be easily implemented. Speaking on public consultation, he

also stressed the need for a scientific and democratic decision-making mechanism to

select comments for inclusion in the post-consultation reports. Professor WANG

Chenguang from Tsinghua University spoke from his personal experiences, describing

transparency in Chinese legislation as more of an “opaque glass box” as opposed to the

“glass box” ideal. Professor SHI Yan’an from Renmin University addressed the openness

of criminal law-making. He advocated timely public consultations to allow for expert

feedback to be properly considered. Ms HU Jihua, Vice-President at the Civil Law Office

of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress Standing