People's Daily:
In 2017, the Opinions on the Implementation of the Responsibility System for Law Popularization of 'Those Who Enforce the Law Should be Responsible for Popularizing the Law' among State Organs was issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, and the responsibility system was specially emphasized in the seventh five-year plan on enhancing public legal awareness. What efforts have been made by the Ministry of Justice and the National Office for Law Popularization to implement the responsibility system and stimulate various departments' participation in enhancing the public's knowledge of the law? Thank you.
Fu Zhenghua:
Thanks for your question. Serving as the director of the National Office for Law Popularization, I think the question you've raised relates to my job.
I think the advancement of the responsibility system - an innovation in the concept of public legal education, practice and institution in the new era - is an important achievement, as well as a major landmark measure in the seventh five-year plan on enhancing public legal awareness. In recent years, we have made great efforts to implement the responsibility system from the following aspects:
First, strengthening coordination for the implementation of the responsibility system. With the approval from the State Council, the Ministry of Justice has taken the lead in establishing an inter-ministerial joint conference mechanism on implementing the responsibility program of strengthening public legal awareness, a crucial step in promoting the responsibility system.
Second, compiling a list covering all aspects of legal education responsibilities. The National Office for Law Popularization has compiled and released two batches of law popularization responsibility lists for state law enforcement departments, covering 50 departments and sectors and clarifying their duties and tasks in carrying out public legal education.
Third, highlighting the role of interpreting the law with cases. The Ministry of Justice, the National Office for Law Popularization and the Supreme People's Court have jointly issued the opinions on regularizing and institutionalizing the working mechanism inviting state functionaries to observe court trials. Cadres of the central Party and state institutions have been invited to observe court trials, and we've also promoted this working mechanism across the country.
Fourth, strengthening the exchange and promotion of experiences. We have organized nationwide activities to identify innovative practices in law popularization. We have guided all departments in different areas to enhance law popularization in implementation of the system of disclosing information on administrative law enforcement, the system for recording entire law enforcement process and the system for reviewing the legality of major administrative law enforcement decisions. A series of legal publicity activities have been held across the country, such as the legal publicity day, the legal publicity week and the legal publicity month. Moreover, we've also promoted the practice of evaluating the performance reports of the law enforcement departments in legal publicity and education.
Fu Zhenghua:
Next, we will continue to organize, coordinate, offer guidance to, supervise and urge the implementation of the responsibility program in which state law enforcement departments are responsible for strengthening public legal awareness in various regions and across different departments .
First, we will integrate the responsibility program, as a basic component and important task, into the building of a government based on the rule of law in which we have been unsparing in our efforts to promote it. At present, the Commission for Overall Law-Based Governance of the CPC Central Committee is carrying out the building of a government based on the rule of law. We are increasing the weight of the work of law popularization in the metrics involved in assessing the success of legal governance. When it comes to implementing the responsibility program and conducting supervisory tasks, we consider law popularization as a necessity in terms of inspection. We tie the strengthening of law popularization closely with promoting the rule of law in government. We see it as one of the due responsibility elements of legal governance.
Second, we will make more effort to popularize the law when undertaking our legislative work. We will implant the law popularization and law-related education into the legislative works. We will explain legal issues, respond to the concerns of the general public, and promote the spirit of rule of law, by the means of holding press conferences, offering experts' opinions, soliciting public opinions, holding hearing sessions, and organizing media campaigns.
Third, we will increase efforts to popularize the law through disclosing the handling of various cases. We will push for all judicial and law enforcement departments to choose typical cases (for disclosure), and do a better job in offering legal explanations for cases and incidents of great concern to the general public. We will turn the handling of high-profile cases and incidents into a process of nationwide law popularization.
Fourth, we will firmly implement the responsibility program of law popularization, focusing on the responsibility list. We will enhance the appraisal of the implementation of the responsibility program in which state law enforcement departments are responsible for strengthening public legal awareness. Through case files review and examination, selecting and publishing typical cases and innovative programs, and deliberation of performance reports, we aim to further improve the implementation of the program.
