Research On "Non-Existence Of Information" Issue In Government Information Publicity Litigation

Since the implementation of the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information in 2008,government agencies have achieved remarkable results in information disclosure,the amount of government information disclosed has been increasing,and relevant concepts have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.With the continuous development of open government information work,citizens’ awareness of rights has also increased significantly,accompanied by an increase in the number of open government information litigation,among which,the number of cases caused by administrative organs’ replies that "information does not exist" has increased.As a large number of administrative organs reply that "information does not exist" cases enter judicial procedures,while increasing the pressure on administrative trial work,it also exposes the lack of unified handling methods for such cases in the trial process,and judges’ understanding of such cases is biased,resulting in unpredictable judgment results in such cases,and the contradiction of "same case but different judgments" often appears.This paper adopts quantitative analysis,case analysis and other research methods,takes the Supreme People’s Court Guiding Case No.101 as the starting point,deeply analyzes the current situation of "information does not exist" cases in open government information litigation in practice,cooperates with practical cases to find out the crux of the trial of such cases,constructs a judicial review path for such cases on the basis of improving them,puts forward suggestions for improving the administrative acts of administrative organs,and explores ways of extra-litigation remedies for deepening the construction of a service-oriented government and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of applicants.The main body of the article is divided into four parts:The first part understands the concept of "non-existence of government information" from both narrow and broad levels,lists the common types of "nonexistence of government information" that appear in practice,distinguishes between "non-existence of government information" and "non-governmental information" and "information on the duties of non-disclosure duties of this organ",and combines the current situation of "non-existence of government information" in relevant data analysis practices.The second part takes Supreme People’s Court Guiding Case No.101 as the starting point,provides an in-depth interpretation of its judgment and the gist of the judgment,and cooperates with the combing and analysis of other practical cases to find out the crux of the "information does not exist" case in the trial process-the burden of proof,and analyzes it from the three perspectives of proof object,proof standard and burden of proof allocation.Part III summarizes the key points of review in "information non-existent" cases based on the focus of disputes,the gist of the judgment and the trial experience in practical cases such as Guiding Case No.101,and clarifies the object of proof and the standard of proof;Using the theory of the rule of burden of proof,the rules for the allocation of the burden of proof in such cases are proposed;On the basis of improving the issue of the burden of proof in cases where "information does not exist",a hierarchical judicial review path is further proposed with the plaintiff’s submission of prima facie evidence as the demarcation and the administrative organ’s self-confession of illegality as the terminal.The fourth part draws on the research results of the above-mentioned litigation activities to administrative management,puts forward suggestions for improvement to administrative organs,and explores the establishment of relevant appeal systems.