Constitution of the People's Republic of China

The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the basis of the Chinese legal system. The current constitution dates from December 4, 1982, and was modified in 1988, 1993, 1999 and 2004.

History

On September 29, 1949, provisional constitution of the newly established People's Republic of China came into force. Then the first Constitution of the People 's Republic of China was adopted on September 20, 1954, which is also the first Mao Constitution. She defined the People's Republic as a nation state, which is led by the working class and based on the alliance of the working class and peasantry. The structure of the nation state should lead to a socialist society. They also wrote fundamental rights such as the right to work permanently. Furthermore, in the civil war built by the armies of five regional administrations were replaced by a division into provinces and autonomous regions.

Especially during the time of the Cultural Revolution, a political campaign 1966-1976, which was initiated by Mao Zedong in order to assert its power against real and perceived opponents in the Communist Party, the provisions of the Constitution played only a subordinate role in political practice. Law and order were in fact completely overridden.

The 1954 Constitution was revised three times, namely in 1975 under Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai (Second Mao - Constitution ), 1978, after the death of Mao and the final end of the Cultural Revolution and 1982, following the conviction of the Gang of Four and the beginning of a cautious liberalization of the economy in China under Deng Xiaoping.

Constitution content

The current version today of the Chinese Constitution was adopted at the 5th Session of the 5th National People's Congress on December 4, 1982.

Article 1 of the Constitution regulates the supremacy of the Communist Party in the state: The People's Republic of China is a socialist state under the democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants of the people. The Constitution contains the following five parts:

According to Chapter III are the organs of the state:

The National People's Congress ( NPC) adopted extensive amendments to the Chinese Constitution on March 14, 2004. With these changes, the respect of human rights and private property were included in the Constitution for the first time since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Literally, in the new constitution:

To what extent especially the latter is actually implemented, is controversial.

The old constitution was valid until March 2005. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress also decided in the next five years to check some 60 laws and draft legislation. Among these are laws for accountability in rights violations to social security and social assistance as well as a law on employment contracts. Overall, a slow modernization and legalization of society and social systems is emerging.

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