Thesis for the Final Examination

of the Overview of Law

Title： Laws of China and Russia

Name: Gaponova Ekaterina

ID number: 200720970116

Teacher: Jian Zhang

School: Business Administration

Major: Business Administration

 Year: 2020-2021

Date: June/27/2021

I acknowledge and accept the Honor Code, I have neither given nor received
assistance on this examination.

Law - the legislative body of state power regulates certain social relations. No society
could exist without regard for the rights of others.
China is a country with a long and interesting history. The law first appeared and was
officially used during the Ting Dynasty. 法律 means the law in the Chinese language
律 refers to criteria universally applicable to all people, 法 is the synonym of penalty.
It designated a criminal punishment and was oriented towards observance by all
people. The great Confucius also introduced the ethical norms 礼法, 礼 refers to all
rules which uphold moral habits and serve to maintain order in the society, 法
denotes the formal statuses and codes of the government. That is how the laws
began to operate in China.
Main sources of Law in China - constitution, laws in its narrow sense, administrative
regulations, regulations at the local level, rules enacted by ministries and
commissions of the State Council and local administrators, Laws in the SAR,
international treaties and usages.
Basic Laws enacted by the National People’s Congress. Laws enacted by the Standing
Committee of NPC. Legislative Interpretation mane by the Standing Committee of
NPC, mainly concerning Nationality Law, Basic Laws of Hong Kong and Macau,
Criminal Law.
The Constitution of the PRC was adopted at the 5th session of the National People's
Congress of the 5th convocation on December 4th in the 1982, was entered into
force after publication. It has an option of subsequent changes introduced by the
draft amendments to the Constitution of the PRC every 5 years.
Basic principles of the constitution that can help us to understand the country better:
Article 1. «The People's Republic of China is a socialist state with a democratic
dictatorship of the people, led by the working class and based on the alliance of
workers and peasants. The socialist system is the basic system of the People's
Republic of China. Any organization or individual is prohibited from undermining the
socialist system.»
Article 2. «All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people. The
people exercise state power through the National People's Congress and local
people's congresses of various levels. The people, in accordance with the provisions
of the law, in various ways and in various forms, govern state, economic, cultural and
social affairs.»
Article 3. «The state bodies of the People's Republic of China shall implement the
principle of democratic centralism. The National People's Congress and local people's
congresses at various levels are democratically elected and accountable to the
people and under their control.»
Article 4. «All nationalities in the People's Republic of China are equal. The state
guarantees the legal rights and interests of all national minorities, protects and
develops relations of equality, cohesion and mutual assistance of all nationalities.
Discrimination and oppression against any nationality is prohibited, actions aimed at
undermining the cohesion between nationalities and their split are prohibited.»
Article 5. «The People's Republic of China is governed by law and becomes a socialist
state governed by the rule of law. The state ensures the unity and observance of
socialist legality. No laws, administrative regulations or local regulations must be in
conflict with the Constitution.»
Law-making procedure in China has four stages: putting forward the bill, deliberation
of bill, voting the bill, promulgation of the Law. Standing Committee of the NPC can
put forward the bill, the Central Committee of the CCP can submit it. After the
deliberation Standing Committee can present a voting version of the draft law, the
Chairman’s Council shall bring it for a vote. The Law would be enacted if there is
more than half of the votes cast by the members of Standing Committee are
affirmative. Promulgations of different kinds of laws have different procedures, such
a public announcement signed by the president of NPC session.
The legal system in PRC includes seven legal branches: constitutional law,
administrative law, criminal law, civil and commercial economic law, social law and
procedural law. Law Supervising System on China consists of the judicial review
exercised by courts in the common law system, law-supervision exercised by
constitutional court or committee in the civil law system and legal supervision
exercised by parliament. The power of supervision in China is exercised by the
different state organs including the NPC, its Standing Committee, the State Council,
the local people’s congress at the provincial level, in which the Standing Committee
of the NPC plays a key role in supervising.
In China the term «legislation» means specially defined activities by a specially
appointed organ to work out, recognize and change laws and regulations by using its
designated rights, following certain procedures and applying the necessary
technique. It is important part of state laws and regulations. Current legislation
system in China is one for the division of legislative power. It is under the unified
leadership of central authorities and also has decentralization. China’s legislation
includes the legislation of the National People’s Congress and its Standing
Committee. State Council and its relevant department make regulations, as well as
the legislation of ordinary localities, ethnic autonomous regions, special economic
zones and special administrative regions.
It has taken more than 50 years to terminate its old-style legislation that lasted for
thousands of years and transferred to a new system. A contemporary legislative
system usually consist of a legislation structure, main organ of legislation, legislative
right, legislative operation, the supervision of legislation and the relationship
between legislation and relevant areas. The type of legislation structure a nation
adopts based on objective factors and the legislation structure means a concept
representing history and national conditions. There are still many differences among
each country’s legislation system because of the varying national situations, but
China’s system has its own characteristics. First, the power of legislation does not
belong to the category of structure, since it is not held by a single power organ.
Second, China’s legislative power is carried out by two or more power organ. It
means that the country has multi legislative powers. Third, the structure is not one of
checks and balances, where the legislation, administration and court stand
independently to restrain one another.
Now it is the turn to tell about the laws of my country Russia. Historically in 1497
during the reign of Ivan III, the first legislative code of the Russian state was adopted.
This was the beginning of Laws of Russia.
The legal system of Russia is a combination of the national system of law and
international legal obligations of the Russian Federation, the legal culture of Russian
society and legal practice in Russia. In the 1980-1990s the construction of a new legal
system began in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. On June 12th in
1990 the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR was adopted. On November
22th 1991 - the Declaration of the Rights and Freedoms of Man and Citizen was also
adopted. With the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the final establishment of the
modern sovereign Russian state was associated. On December 12th in 1993 a new
Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted by popular vote. The
Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes a wide range of human rights and
freedoms that correspond to the modern international standards and regulations.
Today we live according to the 1993s Constitution, adopted on December 12th. This
is the main document of the state, since it concentrates the fundamental rights,
freedoms and obligations of citizens of the Russian Federation.
I will also give the first five articles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, so
that you can compare them with the Chinese constitution:
Article 1. «The Russian Federation - Russia is a democratic federal rule of law with a
republican form of government. The names Russian Federation and Russia are
equivalent.»
Article 2. «Man, his rights and freedoms are the highest value. Recognition,
observance and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms is the duty of the
state.»
Article 3. «The bearer of sovereignty and the only source of power in the Russian
Federation is its multinational people. The people exercise their power directly, as
well as through state authorities and local self-government bodies. The highest direct
expression of the power of the people is a referendum and free elections. No one
can seize power in Russian federation. The seizure of power or the appropriation of
power is prosecuted under federal law.»
Article 4. «The sovereignty of the Russian Federation extends to its entire territory.
The Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws prevail throughout the
territory of the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation ensures the integrity and
inviolability of its territory.»
Article 5. «The Russian Federation consists of republics, territories, regions, cities of
federal significance, an autonomous region and districts - equal subjects of the
Russian Federation. In relations with federal bodies of state power, all subjects of the
Russian Federation are equal among themselves.»
The Constitution of the Russian Federation and the federal constitutional law "On the
judicial system of the Russian Federation" is the legal basis of the judicial system. The
judicial system of the Russian Federation is a system of specialized government
bodies that administer justice on the territory of the Russian Federation. The system
of courts of the Russian Federation has three branches: the Constitutional Court, the
Court of General Jurisdiction and the Arbitration Court.
The Constitutional Court is a judicial body exercising constitutional control; this
judicial body independently exercises judicial power. The Arbitration Court
administers justice in the economic sphere. The Supreme Court of the Russian
Federation is the highest judicial body for civil, criminal, administrative and other
cases, jurisdictional cases of general jurisdiction, heads the system of courts of
general jurisdiction. Such courts consider criminal, civil cases, as well as some
administrative offenses.
There are instances of stages of legal proceedings in the Russian system. There are
courts, cassation and supervisory instances. The Supreme Court of the Russian
Federation is considered the highest judicial body considering civil, criminal,
administrative and other cases, subject to jurisdiction of the courts of general
jurisdiction. Justices of the peace are vested with the same powers as other
representatives of the judiciary. These powers includes administration of justice,
control over the legality and validity of decisions, giving clarifications on issues of
judicial practice, participation in the formation of the bodies of the judicial
community. The judicial community includes: Federal judges, judges of the
constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as honorably retired judges.
The system of legislation is broader than the system of law, since it includes a large
number of branches of legislation and has a large number of regulatory legal acts.
The system of legislation includes the so-called complex formations, which include
various legal acts regulating relatively independent areas, for example, legislation on
health care, nature protection, and education. Russian legislation makes it possible to
distinguish three groups of branches of legislation: with branches of law (criminal,
civil, land), complex branches of legislation (administrative, civil, criminal, economic),
branches which corresponding to areas of government and areas of government
activity (water, air, railway legislation).
The main structural element of the legislative system is a normative act. The main
normative legal acts that have supremacy over the entire territory of the Russian
Federation is the Constitution of the Russian Federation. All other regulations must
comply with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The system of legislation of
the Russian Federation includes three levels: federal, regional, municipal.
The sources of law in Russia are laws and regulations, international treaties and
agreements of the Russian Federation, domestic normative treaties, acts of
constitutional control bodies. The adoption of the laws of the Russian Federation is
carried out with the help of deputies, who communicate with people and listen to
their wishes. They introduce bills that the State Duma submits for consideration or
else rejects. Likewise, people can write the desired adopted law to the current
authorities, where they must be heard and sent to higher authorities. After
consideration, the members of the State Duma take a vote, as a result of which it is
decided whether to adopt a law. To pass the law, more than half of the votes of the
deputies must be received.