MOJ releases 2024 White Paper on Administrative Reconsideration

The Ministry of Justice released the White Paper on Administrative Reconsideration (2024) on June 30, delineating the country's progress and outcomes of administrative reconsideration over the past year.

Structured around seven key dimensions, the white paper underscores the role of administrative reconsideration in advancing comprehensive law-based governance. It highlights the effectiveness in resolving administrative disputes, the substantive role of mediation and reconciliation, supervision over law-based administration, support for high-quality enterprise development, development of supporting systems and mechanisms, and foundational capacity building.

The white paper also reviews the progress made by local judicial administration authorities in implementing the newly revised administrative reconsideration law, including their advancements in the release of typical cases and the development of working mechanisms pertinent to the field.

In 2024, administrative reconsideration authorities at all levels handled a significant volume of cases with high efficiency and quality, affirming the role of administrative reconsideration as the ‌primary channel‌ for resolving administrative disputes, which provides robust legal safeguards for high-quality economic and social development, the white paper said.

According to the white paper, a total of 749,600 administrative reconsideration cases were newly accepted in 2024, reflecting a ‌94.7 percent year-on-year increase and amounting to 2.5 times the number of first-instance administrative cases handled by courts during the same period. Meanwhile, the number of first-instance administrative cases handled by courts and petitions registered by petition departments saw varying degrees of decreases compared to the previous year.

Moreover, 167,900‌ cases were resolved through ‌mediation and reconciliation, resulting in a ‌26.3 percent settlement rate through mediation and withdrawal from litigation‌ proceedings, with ‌90.3‌ percent of cases not proceeding to litigation or petition procedures, the document said.

It also noted that in 58,000 cases, illegal or inappropriate administrative actions were corrected through measures such as modifications, revocations, or confirmations of illegality, resulting in a correction rate of 12.07 percent.

The white paper further highlights the successful experiences and practices of administrative reconsideration bodies at all levels in establishing administrative reconsideration as the leading channel for dispute resolution. It also underscores progress in promoting a law-based government and strengthening the rule of law in social governance.