GUANGZHOU, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature will study the drafting of a dedicated law to consolidate the filing and review system for administrative regulations, local regulations and other normative documents, in a move to better implement the country's Constitution and laws and ensure consistency in the rule of law.
According to its 2026 legislative plan, the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee will conduct research on creating a dedicated law for the record and review system for normative documents. This information was detailed in a circular released at a recent meeting on related work by local authorities, held in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province.
The legislation would help integrate the record and review systems of the country's legislative bodies, governmental agencies, as well as supervisory and judicial authorities, thus creating a unified and coordinated framework of relevant rules that covers all sectors concerned, according to the meeting.
Record and review of normative documents, sometimes described as a "legal checkup," is a constitutional oversight mechanism with Chinese characteristics. It is designed to ensure that all administrative regulations, local regulations and other normative documents and rules conform to the principles of the Constitution. It helps guarantee the implementation of the Constitution and laws, uphold the consistency and uniformity of the country's legal system and advance law-based governance.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, the NPC Standing Committee has received more than 23,000 cases of filing of regulations and judicial interpretations, while citizens and organizations have submitted more than 36,000 suggestions for review of relevant documents.
The Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee has overseen or urged the revision or repeal of more than 27,000 normative documents of various types that had violated relevant rules.
The system has also become more digitalized and intelligent, the circular said. In 2019, the top legislature launched a platform on its website for citizens and organizations to submit review suggestions. Nearly 20,000 such suggestions have been submitted online over the past seven years.
According to the Guangzhou meeting, the NPC Standing Committee will step up reviews and research involving areas such as public welfare, environmental protection and primary-level governance, and help local authorities make their normative documents more law-based and rule-based.
It will also support local legislatures in exploring the filing and review of documents issued at the township and community levels, the meeting said.
The Constitution has the highest legal authority in China, and laws, administrative regulations, local regulations and other normative documents and rules must not contravene it.
Under China's Legislation Law, normative documents must be filed with the relevant authorities. Documents found to exceed the issuing authority's powers, violate higher-level laws or fail to follow statutory procedures shall be amended or revoked.
The record and review system follows the principle of "all normative documents must be filed, all filed documents must be reviewed, and all errors must be rectified."
The report to the 20th CPC National Congress pledged coordinated steps to enact, revise, abolish, interpret, and codify laws as well as efforts to ensure that legislative work is more systematic, holistic, coordinated, and responsive. Improvements will also be made to the record and review system for normative documents, according to the report.
The Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee at the end of 2025 submitted a report on the record and review work during that year for the top legislature's review. It said the system had helped identify and correct a number of problematic or inappropriate local regulations and rules.
Among them were local rules that imposed price thresholds for vehicles operating in the ride-hailing sector and rules requiring local permanent household registration as a necessary condition to register motorized wheelchairs for people with disabilities. ■
