Constitution of the People's Republic of China
The constitution of the People's Republic of China forms the basis of the Chinese legal system. The current constitution dates from December 4, 1982 and was amended in 1988, 1993, 1999 and 2004 as well as 2018.
history
On September 29, 1949, a provisional constitution for the newly established People's Republic of China came into force. On September 20, 1954, the first constitution of the People's Republic of China , also known as the First Mao Constitution , was passed. She defined the People's Republic as a people's state led by the working class and based on the alliance of the working class and the peasantry. The building of the people's state should lead to a socialist society. She also wrote basic rights such as B. the right to work. In addition, the five regional administrations established by the armies during the civil war were replaced by a division into provinces and autonomous areas.
In particular during the time of the Cultural Revolution , a political campaign between 1966 and 1976 that was initiated by Mao Zedong to assert his power over real and supposed opponents in the Communist Party, the provisions of the constitution only played a subordinate role in political practice . Law and order were in fact completely overridden.
The 1954 constitution was revised three times, namely in January 1975 under Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai ( Second Mao Constitution ), in March 1978 after Mao's death and the final end of the Cultural Revolution, and in December 1982 after the condemnation of the Gang of Four and the Start of economic reform and opening up policy under Deng Xiaoping .
Constitutional content
The current version of the Chinese Constitution was adopted at the 5th session of the 5th National People's Congress on December 4, 1982.
Article 1 of the constitution regulates the supremacy of the Communist Party in the state: The People's Republic of China is a socialist state under the democratic dictatorship of the people, led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. The constitution contains the following five parts:
- preamble
- I. General principles
- II. Basic rights and obligations of citizens
- III. Structure of the state
- IV. State flag, coat of arms and capital
According to Chapter III, the organs of the state are:
- National People's Congress with around 3,000 members as the formally highest state organ,
- President with a purely representative function,
- State Council , as the highest body of the state government and administration, consisting of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers, the State Secretaries and the specialist ministers,
- Judicial power,
- Central Military Commission .
On March 14, 2004, the National People's Congress (NPC) passed extensive changes to the Chinese constitution. These changes included respect for human rights and private property in the constitution for the first time since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Literally it says in the new constitution:
- Legal private property is inviolable.
- The state respects and protects human rights.
The extent to which the latter is actually implemented is controversial.
The old constitution was valid until March 2005. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress also decided to review around 60 laws and bills over the next five years. These include laws on liability in the event of legal violations, social security and welfare, and a law on employment contracts. Overall, a slow modernization and legalization of society and social systems is emerging.
Individual evidence
- ^ Constitution of September 20, 1954
- ↑ full text
- ↑ full text (German)
- ↑ full text
- ↑ Sebastian Heilmann: Instructions come from above Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2008
- ^ Constitution of the People's Republic of China December 4, 1982
- ↑ Council of the European Union: Annual report on the human rights situation (PDF file; 1.14 MB) p. 105, September 13, 2004
- ↑ Amnesty International Annual Report 2008 ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
