Objective
Legal norms that are precise, coherent and designed to ensure a fair balancing of interests are the foundation of modern states governed by the rule of law. They are a prerequisite for a consistent application of law in public administration and legal practice, minimizing susceptibility to corruption and increasing legal certainty for citizens as well as for domestic and foreign companies. In the Norm-Creation field of activity, the Sino-German Legal Cooperation Programme thus supports measures to improve law-making in China in terms of technical assistance, content, and methodology.
Partners
The Sino-German Legal Cooperation Programme advises central legislative institutions on the drafting of new laws and regulations and in the reform of existing ones. In particular, every year the programme organizes numerous events with the Legislative Affairs Commission and the Budgetary Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the People’s National Congress. The Programme also supports the Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee of the National People’s Congres.as well as ministries and supreme authorities of the State Council. In addition, it cooperates with local People’s Congresses for the improvement of law-making at the province level. Together with universities and research institutes, finally, it organizes symposia on current draft laws.
Approach
Together with the Chinese partners, the Programme organizes workshops, symposia, training courses and study tours. It also arranges specific individual advisory services by GIZ experts on site and provides expert studies as well other publications as sources of information.
The advice concentrates on two different aspects of legislation. First, technical advice on specific legal topics creates an understanding of the operating principles and the background German and European legal practice. The main focus here is on topics of particular relevance for the rule of law, such as constitutional law and administrative law, the structure and constitution of the judiciary system and People’s Congresses, the reform of budgetary, fiscal and tax law, the codification of civil law and environmental law as a basic pillar of sustainable development. Second, through the presentation of quality-enhancing techniques of legislation (problem analysis, evaluation of norms, types of norms, formulation of norms, regulatory structure, regulatory impact analysis, participation) in Europe or Germany, the programme works towards making legislative processes more reflective of different interests, more participatory and more sustainable
In past project phases, for example, the programme supported the preparation of the legislation on employment law (1994), on tort law (2009), on the general part of the civil code, and on online trade.