Judicial reform can promote legal order
When we talk about the modern rule of law, the most fundamental aspects are limiting government power and state authority and requiring the government to follow the same rules of the common law as ordinary citizens.
To promote reform which limits power, China must first establish an authoritative legal order which can effectively integrate the country.
In other words, another authoritative system should be formed in addition to the existing power system. This new system should be able to keep existing power in check in situations when it is relatively strong. Only after the formation of such a universal legal system should administrative reform be carried out, because in the absence of a unified legal order, decentralization reform would come with great risk.
The communique concerning legal reform initiatives unveiled at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee contains a holistic framework － to build rule of law in China. Although this has been a buzzword among scholars for some time, this is the first time it has been put forward by the central authority.
In my opinion, rule of law in China should be based on a tripartite system, i.e. budget deliberations of the National People's Congress (NPC), government auditing accountability, and judicial review based on the Constitution and law.
In this process, judicial reform is implemented from the top down. This part of judicial reform has already been promoted in the resolution. Fiscal and taxation reform, on the other hand, is implemented from the bottom-up, and it has not yet received sufficient emphasis. Although the resolution puts particular emphasis on fiscal and taxation system reforms, tax law, and the rule of law in finance, it still does not provide a clear description on how the NPC should carry out budget deliberations.
Budgeting includes both political and technical aspects. Budget discussions are hindered by technical issues, but they are also greatly impacted by the important political issue of government policy objectives and priority arrangements. In developed countries, the majority of the audit commission's attention is focused on the evaluation of policy objectives, or in other words the study of political issues.
In my view, judicial reform is the starting point for the establishment of rule of law order in China, in addition to fiscal and taxation democratization. These two can combine to build China into a country ruled by law.
