Study On The System Of Decentralisation Of Administrative Penalties To Street Offices

Article 24 of the newly amended Law of the People’s Republic of China on Administrative Penalties in 2021 provides for a system of decentralisation of administrative penalty power.This article is an important manifestation of the implementation of the resolutions of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19 th CPC Central Committee,the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Integration of Approval Services and Law Enforcement Forces at the Grassroots Level and the Programme for Deepening the Reform of the Party and State Institutions,as well as the significant theoretical achievements made in the process of reforming the administrative law enforcement system through legislation to form a system of legal norms.In the context of deepening the reform of the administrative law enforcement system,the construction of the system of administrative penalty power down to the grassroots level not only responds positively to the embarrassing situation of the streets in the field of law enforcement,which is "visible but not manageable,or manageable but not visible",but also reflects the urgent need for the modernisation of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity since the 18 th National Congress.The implementation of the decentralised system of administrative penalties has enabled the street offieces to acquire the status of administrative law enforcement subjects,break through the long-established system of bar and block management,which has restricted jurisdiction at the "county level and above",and the theory that the street offices are not administrative law enforcement subjects.It has brought certain risks of instability to the governance of the grassroots government.How to improve the system of decentralising administrative penalties to the street offices and set up corresponding mechanisms to minimise and avoid the risks is a topic worthy of in-depth study and exploration.Therefore,based on the practical dilemmas of the system of administrative penalties delegated to street offices,this paper uses a combination of historical,normative and empirical research methods,and institutional analysis methods to conduct a comprehensive and systematic study of the basic theory,scope of matters,enforcement system and operational mechanism of the system of administrative penalties delegated to street offices.This paper is divided into four chapters,the main contents of which are as follows.Chapter 1: The basic theory of the decentralisation of administrative penalties.Firstly,the connotation of the sinking of administrative penalty power is explained in terms of the sinking decision subject,the sinking undertaking subject and the sinking conditions.It is made clear that the provincial people’s congresses and governments can make decisions on the sinking of administrative penalties under the pre-conditions of "urgent management at the grassroots level","ability to undertake" and that the sinking of administrative penalties is limited to the devolved county level.The administrative delegation of administrative penalties to street offices and township people’s governments.Secondly,it will briefly summarise the motivation for the new administrative penalty power decentralisation system in the Administrative Penalty Power.In this regard,there are two main aspects: firstly,social governance focuses on the grassroots,and the rule of law in grassroots governance needs to be promoted by the decentralised system of administrative penalty power;secondly,the decentralised system of administrative penalty power makes up for the shortcomings of the relatively centralised administrative penalty power system and the comprehensive administrative law enforcement pre-reform,in order to solve many problems faced by grassroots law enforcement,such as the disconnection of powers and responsibilities,weakness of the grassroots,redundant institutions and multiple law enforcement.Finally,the analysis of the academic views and local practices on the decentralisation of administrative penalties makes it clear that the legal attributes of the decentralisation of administrative penalties are not administrative delegation and adjustment of hierarchical jurisdiction,but administrative delegation.The above-mentioned theoretical analysis lays the foundation for further research and analysis of the decentralisation of administrative penalties.Chapter 2: The scope of matters for which the power of administrative punishment is delegated to street offices.Article 24 of the Administrative Penalties Law gives provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government the "discretionary administrative power" to street offices as appropriate,but this is prone to be vague or too broad,too many or too narrow,or too few in scope,resulting in the failure to truly reflect the "grassroots management The"urgent need".In the selection of administrative penalties to be decentralized to street offices,this paper believes that,full consideration of the number of law enforcement personnel,financial strength and the capacity of the law enforcement team,administrative penalties that are highly professional,vertically managed and coordinated across regions should be excluded,and administrative penalties that are urgently needed for grassroots management,such as labour and personnel management,fire safety management,urban management and education and training management,should be decentralized to street offices.Chapter 3,the enforcement system of decentralising administrative penalties to street offices.A comprehensive administrative law enforcement agency is set up as an internal operational agency of the street office,and the delegated administrative penalty powers and their corresponding administrative inspection and administrative compulsion are exercised in the name of the street offices.In general,the staff of the street offices exercising the power of administrative penalties must be civil servants,while the staff of public institution in street offices are not eligible to apply for administrative law enforcement documents.This paper argues that in practice,administrative enforcement capacity and team building is the primary issue to be addressed by the decentralisation system of administrative penalties,and thus emphasis should be placed on enhancing the construction of law enforcement teams in street offices,the financial security of law enforcement,and the information technology construction of law enforcement.At the same time,attention should be paid to the social participation mechanism in the exercise of administrative penalty powers by street offices,and the public service functions of community neighbourhood committees should be exerted,especially to support their work responsibilities in giving feedback to the public,assisting in public health management and protecting the interests of the public in the prevention and control of epidemics.Chapter 4,the operating mechanism for the decentralisation of administrative penalties to street offices.In terms of the decentralisation procedure mechanism,in accordance with the principle of statutory authority,there are two main situations,namely,the direct decentralisation of the street office procedure and the indirect decentralisation of the street office procedure according to "the provincial government determining the enforcement guidance list,in which the county government selecting the ’urgent’ enforcement matters and follow the procedure to delegate administrative power to street offices.In terms of the public mechanism for decentralisation decisions,local governments should take the initiative to publicise the content of decentralisation decisions on administrative penalties through authoritative information dissemination platforms and multiple channels and carriers,and standardise the public content of their announcement names,the specific content of decentralisation decisions on administrative penalties and the list of comprehensive administrative law enforcement matters in the streets,so as to fully safeguard citizens’ rights to information,participation and supervision of administrative power.In terms of the vertical safeguard and supervision mechanism for decentralisation,mechanisms such as collaboration and cooperation on administrative penalties,legal system audit,coordination of law enforcement disputes,"two assessments" before and afterwards,supervision of administrative law enforcement and administrative evaluation and assessment have been established.In terms of the horizontal coordination and cooperation mechanism of the decentralisation,a mechanism of "co-ordination by the street office,concrete implementation by the comprehensive administrative law enforcement team of the street,joint enforcement by the stationed stations and enforcement by the judicial organs" has been established to consolidate the effectiveness achieved by the reform of the system of decentralisation of administrative punishment to the street office.