In February 1979, the NPCSC established a legal affairs commission to help assist in rebuilding China's legal system after the Cultural Revolution.^[1] Headed by Peng Zhen, it consisted of 80 legal officials, and was given autonomy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to draft laws.^[2] In what was termed as a "miracle", the commission drafted and submitted seven bills in three months.^[1]

The NPC Organic Law, passed in 1982, gave the NPCSC the authority to establish working commission if necessary. In September 1983, the NPCSC exercised that power, and renamed the commission to become the Legislative Affairs Commission.^[1]

The Legislative Affairs Commission is a ministerial-level body of the NPCSC dedicated to assist it in legislation-related functions.^[3] The LAC is responsible for drafting NPCSC's five-year and annual legislative plans, subject to approval by the NPCSC's Council of Chairpersons and the CCP leadership. To draft the plans, it solicits views from a wide range of groups, including the central government, local people's congresses, NPC delegates, experts, trade associations, and online public opinion. The Commission's role in formulating the nation's legislative agenda has given it a key role, especially as the NPCSC typically meets only two times a month, meaning the Commission influences which legislative bills appear at sessions.^[1]

Drafting laws edit

The Commission also drafts bills, which are then submitted to the NPCSC through the Council of Chairpersons as the LAC cannot submit bills directly itself. In practice, the LAC effectively drafts nearly all the bills the Council submits.^[1]

Though only the NPC Constitution and Law Committee directly submit amendments to a bill for discussion or a vote after conducting "unified deliberations" by considering opinions of various sides, it has delegated much of its day-to-day work to the LAC as it has a much smaller amount of staff than the Commission.^[1] Through seminars, debate sessions, and public hearings, the LAC gathers opinions on the draft laws from various parties, including delegates to the NPC, local people's congresses, various government agencies and experts. It also collects and organizes the opinions and NPCSC members' views expressed during deliberations.^[1]

The LAC distributes these materials to NPC special committees, especially the Constitution and Law Committee, or to the NPCSC sessions if necessary. Based on the solicited opinions, it has the authority to propose amendments to the draft laws.^[1] According to law professor Chu Chenge, through its control over the information process, the Commission can "filter out views with which the leadership of the NPCSC disagrees", thereby "making it easier to impose the will of the leaders of the NPCSC or the Legislative Affairs Commission on legislators".^[3]

Before the enactment of draft laws, it conducts assessment on them, including feasibility over major statutory schemes, timing of their promulgation, their social effects and any potential problems. It also standardizes the draft law's language and makes cosmetic changes before it is put to a final vote.^[1]

After passage of laws edit

The Commission has, in practice, the sole conductor of "recording and review" processes, an oversight tool of the NPCSC to review and rein in unwanted legislation. The process first involves various rulemaking bodies "recording" the legislations enactments with the NPCSC, which then "reviews" their validity.^[4]

The LAC has the authority to respond to "legal inquiries regarding specific questions", meaning requests by provincial people's congresses and central government bodies clarifying where the laws are applicable in real-life scenarios. Though it has been responding to such inquiries since the 1980s, most of the responses have not been made public. The Commission's responses have been compared to NPCSC's legislative or constitutional interpretations, though according to the NPC Observer, scholarly consensus holds that unlike NPCSC's interpretations, the Commission's responses do not have the force of law.^[1]

Other edit

The Commission's Constitution Office was formed in 2018 to assist the NPC Constitution and Law Committee in work related to constitutional enforcement. It has also established a spokesperson's office at its Research Office in 2019 in order to increase transparency. The spokesperson holds a press conference before each NPCSC session, introducing the session's legislative agenda and give a brief summary of the comments the pending bills received during public consultation. The spokesperson's have also given public statements to express the NPCSC's view on issues.^[1]

At its establishment, the commission had three subdivisions; the Law Office, the Policy Research Office, and the Administrative Office. It currently has 11 offices:^[1][3]

1. Criminal Law Office (established 1983)
2. Economic Law Office (1983)
3. Civil Law Office (1987)
4. State Law Office (2004)
5. Administrative Law Office (2004)
6. Social Law Office (2011)
7. Constitution Office (2018)
8. Administrative Office (1979)
9. Research Office (1983)
10. Recording and Reviewing Regulations Office (2004)
11. Legislative Planning Office (2007)

While no official tally exists on the number of personnel employed at the commission, a 2008 report put the number at 170. NPC Observer interviews with three members of the LAC in 2014 and 2020 revealed the number to be above 200. Most of its members are considered to have high legal training, and most of its positions require degree on law, often at the graduate level.^[1]