New agency set up to see to Constitution application

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, has established a new agency to review whether legislation or government decisions tally with the Constitution.

The agency, set up in May as a division under the Legal Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, has roughly 50 staff.

"The central task for the division is to safeguard legislative unity," and the new agency is low-key at present, said an anonymous official with the commission, quoted by Monday's China Daily.

In China, all legislation has to be drafted according to the spirit of the Constitution. The Constitution says that constitutional interpretation and supervision comes under the jurisdiction of the NPC and the Standing Committee.

However, the NPC convenes only once a year. The brief annual session is filled with numerous items of business including examination of the government's work and the budget review. The NPC Standing Committee meets bi-monthly, mainly focusing on lawmaking issues.

Therefore, the NPC and its Standing Committee seldom have the time to conduct constitutional overviews and investigations of constitutional violations.

"The establishment of this new legislative review body will help consolidate the legislature's constitutional supervision," said Wang Zhenmin, vice-director of the Law School at Qinghua University, quoted by the paper.

The anonymous committee official said the new agency will also be responsible for the collection of information on constitutional violations from the public, including individuals' suggestions andcomments on the violations of the Constitution.