Perfection Of Administrative Penalty Hearing Procedure In China

Hearing is a procedure in which administrative organs listen to the statements and opinions of the party and allow the party to conduct cross-examination or enter into a debate before making important decisions.Based on the functions of hearing,the hearing system has been adopted by various countries in the world.In modern administrative procedures,the hearing procedure of administrative penalties can prevent administrative organs from abusing the public power,protect the legitimate interests of citizens,and enhance citizens’ participation in administrative activities.The law that first established the hearing procedure was the Administrative Penalties Law issued in 1996,which has been revised three times so far,and made a further step in exploring the social justice.With the successive reguations on hearing-related procedures in administrative licensing and administrative legislation,government at all levels have issued quite a few laws and regulations that involve the hearing,contributing to the wide application of hearing.Healing was first implemented in the field of administrative penalties,but its defects in practice have been exposed evidently due to various reasons.such as unsound legislation,little practical experience,etc.In order to adapt to the development needs of different regions,some local laws and regulations have exceeded the scope of the upper law concerning the regulation on the hearing procedure of administrative penalties.Aiming at the status of the hearing procedure of administrative penalties,existing problems are studied and discussed,and it is really necessary to make suggestions for improvement.Regarding the study on the hearing procedure of administrative penalties,focus of dispute on the hearing procedure of administrative penalties is learnt preliminarily through typical cases,to look into its legal issues and lead to the following text.Next,general theories of the hearing procedure of administrative penalties are stated,to illustrate its value.Afterwards,main problems confronted in the running of hearing procedure of administrative penalties are analyzed,namely narrow hearing scope of administrative penalties,unsound hearing host system,and citizens’ limited participation in hearing,unsound regulations on records of hearing,and lack of an effective monitoring system.Reasons for these problems are summarized from the legislative technique and ideas,to find out specific ways of solving the problems.Finally,the problems are analyzed specifically.By referring to foreign advanced legislative experience,suggestions for improving the hearing procedure of administrative penalties are proposed.First,to improve the application scope of the hearing procedure of administrative penalties;second,to improve the hearing host system;third,to reduce the barriers to citizens’participation in hearing;fourth,to clarify the laws and regulations on the records of hearing;fifth,to strengthen the monitoring of hearing procedure of administrative penalties.