The Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress has released a unique evaluation report about a local law on the protection of buildings of historic interest.

The 14-page report lists the problems found in the performance of the Shanghai Municipal Regulation on the Protection of Historical and Cultural Zones and the Refined Historical Buildings, which was approved by the congress in July 2002.

We found that only one fifth of the residents who withdrew from the historical buildings or regions were satisfied with the compensation money for their evacuation, said Ding Wei, member of the Standing Committee and head of law evaluation team.

So, we made a suggestion in the report that the congress should adjust the sums of compensation money to ensure the interests of all parties involved in the evacuation are properly guaranteed, said Ding.

Generally speaking, the law has been successful as we found the number of buildings under protection in Shanghai has increased to 632 from 39 over the past three years.

"Evaluating the effectiveness of laws can improve the whole legislative process," said Pu Xingzu, an expert on China's political system and also a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.

In the past, it has been rare that such an evaluation has been made known to public, he said.

The municipal congress began the evaluation last August. Besides the law enforcement agencies, Shanghai residents were also invited to give their opinions on the law.

Gu Junwen, a Shanghai resident said, "I feel many laws or regulations nowadays are too much like ornaments to protect the interests of our common people and I hope the impractical parts can be abolished after evaluations."

The evaluation has helped the laws, which are designed to benefit the public, be more effective and they should be conducted regularly, said Shen Guoming, head of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of Municipal People's Congress.

Source: Xinhua