Regulation And Control Upon Customs Discretion

With the development of the society and its level of civilization, the rule of law has grad ually become a basic faith and institutional foundation of social and public life. However, in r eal process of the administrative law enforcement, as specific, clear legal rules are lacking or lagging behind, discretion, compared to definite administrative acts, are widely used and infiltrat ed into various links in administrative process. Similarly, in Customs law enforcement activities,discretion exists extensively. Objectively speaking, the use of discretion power plays a positiv e role in compensating for the limited provisions of the Customs law, maintaining the balance between it and legal principles and rules, ensuring Customs entry-exit management efficiency. However, the discretionary power is a double-edged sword. Without reasonable regulation and correct use, it is bound to trigger a series of related issues, resulting in the misdoing of discre tion. This paper aims at analyzing the problems existing in the Customs discretion of luggage and mail supervision, exploring the way to regulate and use discretion power both reasonably and effectively, so as to ensure fairness and administrative justice, reach the maximum balancebetween it and legal principles and rules, and finally embody law enforcement for people. Thus the Customs' principle "administration according to law, the gatekeeper for the country, theeconomy server, and development promoter" is ensured. This paper is divided into four main parts:The first part analyses the background issues and significance. Affirming that the Customsdiscretion of the administrative law enforcement plays a positive role in the process, while clearly understanding that improper use of the discretion may result in serious consequences, it identifies the practical significance in studying the norms and constraints governing Customs discretion.The second part focuses on the relevant theoretical analysis of discretion. Integrating with the current achievements at home and abroad, a systematic exposition is made upon the mean ing, nature, development process and the exercising principle of discretion, while the relevant concept of Customs discretion and Customs supervision on luggage and mail are laid out.The third part points out and analyses various problems and their causes when using discret ion in Customs supervision on luggage and mail.The fourth part on the basis of the previous parts, explores the reasonable norms and effect ive means in constraining discretion in Customs supervision on luggage and mail. The concepts of limited administration, reasonable administration, honest administration, open administration, service administration are introduced in regulating discretion in legislation, law enforcement, internal and external constraints and other aspects.