Study On The Improvement Of China’s Administrative Litigation Prescription System

The administrative litigation prescription system is not stipulated directly inChina’s current legislation and judicial interpretation which uses “prosecutiondeadline” and “legal time limit” instead. It has a big difference with China’s currentcivil litigation prescription system. Legal construction is constantly improvednowadays, as “Chinese Dream” is put forward to establish and improve China’sadministrative litigation prescription system which is in accordance with Chinesenational conditions is under discussion in academic circle.The improvement of China’s administrative litigation prescription system has afar-reaching significance on protecting administrative counterpart’s rights,supervising administrative organ and making the court handle administrative casescorrectly and promptly. The improvement should give consideration to liberty, justiceand efficiency and guarantee the administrative counterpart to maintain their rightsand interests during the period of litigation prescription on the premise of no increaseon litigation cost and no waste on judicial resources.The theoretical basis of administrative litigation prescription system should bepositioned in the theory of right remedy. According to the request of the principle that“where are rights, where are right remedy”, the way of remedy should adapt theremedy action. The design of administrative litigation prescription system should notpermit the expansion of prescription deadline on the basis of protecting the rights ofcounterpart and also should link with the type of administrative litigation according tothe multiple administrative actions. Different types of litigation should have differenttypes of litigation prescription. It can’t be stipulated just directly according to variousadministrative actions.It is thought that the improvement of the administrative litigation prescriptionsystem includes the following aspects: Firstly, the administrative litigationprescription should be defined as that the administrative counterpart （including theinterested party） who doesn’t take administrative action has the right to request thePeople’s Court to protect his or her statutory period of legitimate rights and interests. The administrative counterpart doesn’t apply for administrative litigation until the endof the statutory period, thus the result that the administrative counterpart lost the rightto appeal the court. Secondly, the categories of litigation prescription can be improvedfurther, that is, the time limit of general litigation prescription shall be unified withconsideration on Article38and39in Administrative Litigation Act; AdministrativeReview Law shall be used for reference in cases of special litigation prescription.However, based on the requirements of right relief theory, the regulations inAdministrative Litigation Act shall be adopted in case that the time limit specified inspecial law is less than that in Administrative Litigation Act. In addition, differenttypes of administrative litigation prescription shall be set up according to differentadministrative acts and types of litigation, this is the conclusion drew after analyzingthe administrative litigation prescription system in other countries. Thirdly, thestarting point of limitation of actions regulated in administrative litigation act inChina, that is,“starting from the day that know or shall know the concrete content ofadministrative act” shall be modified to “starting from the day that know or shallknow the impairment of rights and interests”. Fourthly, the interruption andsuspending system shall be added into administrative litigation prescription instead ofthe extension of the time limit for prosecution. The administrative litigationprescription system shall be designed scientifically and reasonably in order to makeremedy approach accord with the act of being remedied, as a result, this is in line withthe fundamental objective of right relief of administrative litigation prescriptionsystem and more corresponding to the concepts of democracy and the rule of law andprotection of human rights of a constitutional government.A clear and definite theory of administrative litigation prescription in onecountry is of great significance to protect rights of the party, stabilize administrativelegal relationship and social order and guarantee the smooth progress ofadministrative litigation. As the footstone of the safe, stable and healthy developmentof the order of social management, administrative legal construction has always beenthe basic guarantee for building a harmonious society. As one aspect of administrativeremedy, administrative litigation prescription system can regulate the parties ofadministrative legal relationship after administrative disputes and meanwhile, People’s Court can proceed to “trial in accordance with the law”. The perfection ofadministrative litigation prescription system is to integrate more humanistic carebased on maintaining the authority of statute law, which accords with the traditionalcultural deposits of China and plays an important role in building and improving legalsociety in China.