China's top legislative body will make a preliminary reading of a draft on the nation's first civil code, an indispensable piece of legislation for a market economy and fundamental to safeguarding the rights of individuals and corporations.
Members of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) will review the draft legislation next week when they hold their 31st session.
The announcement came during the meeting of Chairman Li Peng and vice-chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee which was held Tuesday in Beijing.
The civil code offers basic regulations on almost every activity that a corporation may take, such as trade, leasing, transportation, storage, fund-raising, settlement and the development of new products.
It also offers guidelines in respect of the individual in relation to food, clothing, shelter and transportation - the basic necessities of life and recreation, marriage and family - among other daily activities.
The draft civil code is expected to fill in gaps in current civil legislation, said Wang Liming, a civil law professor with Renmin University of China.
Loopholes in current civil legislation, such as the lack of a clear definition of privacy and basic regulations on environmental infringement, traffic accidents and medical incidents, are posing great challenges for judges in determining contractual disputes, said Wang, who has participated in drafting the code.
Li Peng has undertaken to complete a basic legal system within his five-year tenure.
Experts are agreed that it is impossible to establish a basic legal system that suits the needs of the market economy without a civil code.
Taking the far-ranging spectrum of the civil code into consideration, it may need three to four years for the code to win final approval.
Basic laws, such as the civil code, have to be voted on by the full session of the NPC, which gathers once a year, after deliberations by the NPC Standing Committee, according to China's Legislative Procedure Law.
The latest session of the senior legislators will also review draft laws on administrative approval, citizens' identification cards and the promotion of non-State educational institutions, together with draft amendments to the laws on agriculture and grasslands.
The lawmakers will also hear submissions from the State Council on workplace safety and the reform of the medical and public health system.
(China Daily December 18, 2002)
