Weifang takes lead in administrative reconsideration reform

Weifang in East China's Shandong province has made remarkable progress since it became one of the first Chinese cities to implement pilot administrative reconsideration reform. 

As a result, the Ministry of Justice granted the city's administrative reconsideration adjudicatory office the title of national-level advanced unit in building law-based government in 2019.

Pioneering the reform

As part of its agenda, Weifang became the first city to centralize administrative reconsideration by setting up only one adjudicatory committee for that purpose at each level of government.

In addition, it built a five-tier administrative reconsideration liaison officer system which extends the coverage of administrative reconsideration to the village level.

Updating facilities 

In addition to institutional changes, the city also standardized the functions of administrative reconsideration facilities. In its city-level facility which occupies an area of 500 square meters, all the related services including case filing, hearings, mediations and archiving are available. The place is also equipped with multiple electronic devices so that cases can be entirely handled online on the province's administrative reconsideration response and management platform.

Raising profile

By opening new case-fling channels, the city had seen a dramatic growth in the number of administrative reconsideration cases in recent years. It received more than 1,200 such cases in 2019 which quadrupled the figure for 2014. In the first half of 2020 alone, it received over 700 such cases.

It is also actively pursuing once-and-for-all settlement of disputes in various ways including applying simplified procedures, holding hearings, requiring participation of the persons in charge of the involved administrative authorities, and organizing joint review by experts.

Meanwhile, the city has ensured that up to three quarters of its administrative reconsideration team hold the legal profession qualification, and it continues to enhance their professional level by providing training in various forms.