Shanxi to advance law-based rural governance on six fronts

North China's Shanxi province recently released a guideline for building up rule of law in its rural areas, laying out specific goals on six fronts.

Accelerating legislative work

The guideline calls for accelerating agriculture-related legislative work, revising or repealing local regulations or rules that are ill-suited to rural and agricultural development and conducting post-enactment evaluation to ensure the quality of local legislation.

Standardizing governing structure

It demands the appointment of village-level Party secretaries as heads of rural collective and cooperative economic organizations through statutory procedures, formation of both villagers' committees and supervisory committees for village affairs through election and improvement of other rural organizations.

It calls for a consultation-based village-level decision-making process and establishment of a multi-faceted supervision system involving release of power lists, supervision from the public and higher-level Party committees as well as use of accounting and auditing.

It also requests intensified inspections in such key areas as distribution of agricultural subsidies, management of collectively-own assets and land expropriation to root out corruption.

Tackling rural legal issues

The guideline requires full implementation of the three major systems regulating administrative law enforcement which require disclosure of information about administrative law enforcement activities, recording of the full process of such activities and review of major law enforcement decisions. 

Meanwhile, it demands stricter qualification requirements and more job training for law enforcement personnel.

It calls for stronger judicial support through appropriate handling of rural disputes by adjudicatory, procuratorial and public security authorities. It also requires improvement to both the layout of courts and the circuit court system.

Meanwhile, the guideline demands a greater role for the criminal judicial aid system, stronger supervision over case trials and greater judicial convenience for the public.

Enhancing legal services

It demands continued cultivation of rural role models in absorbing legal knowledge, campaigns to disseminate legal knowledge in rural areas, and implementation of an accountability system requiring law enforcement authorities to publicize the law.

The guideline goes on to call for improvement in public legal services in rural areas by providing free legal consultations, designating legal counsels for each and every village, and making services more inclusive, equal and efficient.

It also requires broader scope of rural legal aid services and building of a township-level online government service system.

Improving dispute resolution mechanism

The guideline calls for public participation to be combined with a diversified dispute resolution mechanism to nip disputes in the bud.

It demands the integration of the internet with a governance grid to make rural governance more intelligent and elaborate.

It also stresses the need to promote psychological counseling in rural areas, calling for more village-level counseling offices able to provide villagers with regular services.

Establishing rural demonstrations

The guideline demands specific standards and rules for establishing villages as demonstrations of democracy and rule of law promotion in rural areas.