The Perfection Of The Legal Responsibilities Of The River Chief System From The Perspective Of Local Legislation

Since the 18 th CPC National Congress,the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has made major decisions and plans to strengthen ecological civilization construction from the strategic height of sustainable development of the Chinese nation.The river chief system,an institutional innovation in river basin governance by local party committees and governments,has also been attached great importance by the state.The river chief system is a responsibility system for river and lake management and protection that the Party and government leaders are responsible for,and its effective operation cannot be separated from the guarantee of legal responsibility.At present,13 local legislations of the river chief system have been enacted in nine provinces(municipalities directly under the Central Government)and four cities respectively,which have specified the legal responsibilities of the river chief system.This paper innovatively adopts the method of textual empirical analysis to study the legal liability of the river chief system from the perspective of local legislation,in order to improve the local legislation and achieve the basis of good governance of the river chief system.This paper first sorted out the investigation basis,assessment and evaluation provisions,and responsibility investigation mechanism of the legal liability of the river chief system in these 13 local legislations,and found that the outstanding problems in the establishment of power and responsibility,the evaluation provisions,and the accountability mechanism are to be improved.Secondly,the paper analyzes the causes of the above problems from the perspective of theory and practice,and finds that the implementation of the principle of administration by law and the principle of legislation by law is insufficient in the establishment of power and responsibility in the local legislation of river chief system.In the assessment provisions,the principle of scientific legislation is not followed,the principle of power restriction is not fully used,and the setting of the assessment subject is not in line with practice.In the accountability mechanism,the principle of consistent power and responsibility and the theory of equal responsibility between the Party and the government have not been properly applied.Finally,based on the consideration of improving the legal liability system of the river chief system,in view of the problems found,combined with the analysis of the reasons,through the mirror experience of foreign countries,the improvement suggestions are put forward: first,when optimizing the establishment of powers and responsibilities,the principle of administration according to law should be followed,and the functions and responsibilities of each subject should be clarified;We also need to implement the principle of law-based legislation so as not to contradict the Upper Law.The second is to improve the assessment provisions,to introduce the assessment of the river basin institutions to ensure that the assessment is objective and fair;It is necessary to follow the principle of scientific legislation,formulate the content of evaluation according to local conditions,timely publicize the content and progress of evaluation,and strengthen the application of evaluation results.It is also necessary to make full use of the principle of power restriction,appoint the river chief by the authority,and supervise the implementation of the river chief system.Third,in improving the accountability mechanism,the principle of power and responsibility should be followed,the forms of responsibility of each subject should be unified,and all kinds of legal responsibilities should be clearly defined.A Party and government accountability system should also be established to provide legal basis for intraparty regulations to intervene.To study the legal liability of the river chief system is not only to uphold and improve China’s ecological conservation systems,but also to practice the "promoting green development and promoting harmonious coexistence between man and nature" emphasized by General Secretary Xi Jinping in the Report to the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.However,the study in this paper is only a preliminary exploration of the legal liability of the river chief system,which needs to be tested in specific legislative practice.