A brief analysis of Dong Biwu's legal system thinking and its enlightenment

A brief analysis of Dong Biwu's legal system thinking and its enlightenment

Dong Biwu was a political and legal leader before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and he not only had a theoretical foundation in law, but also served as a leader in political and legal affairs for a long time, so he had rich experience in building the legal system. His profound thinking on the building of the legal system is still of very useful guiding significance for the implementation of ruling the country according to law and building a country ruled by law today.

I. Dong Biwu advocates building the country through law

Before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Dong Biwu always stressed the need to create laws and act in accordance with laws and regulations. On September 26, 1948, Dong Biwu said in his inaugural speech at the inaugural meeting of the North China People's Government, "A regular government must first establish a set of formal systems and methods. In the past, many things did not talk about formalities, and formalized them, and the procedures were very important. Some say it's a formality. Formal government affairs must talk about a certain form, and if we do not talk about form, we will only talk about conscience and memory, and things will be done badly. ”

On October 16, 1948, Dong Biwu delivered a speech at the People's Power Research Conference, in which he said: "To establish a new political power, it is natural to create laws, decrees, rules, and systems. We have broken the old ones and must build new ones. Otherwise it is anarchism. If there are no laws, decrees, regulations, and systems, how can the new order be maintained? Therefore, after the establishment of the new, it is necessary to act in accordance with the new laws and regulations. ”

On September 24, 1954, at the first session of the First National People's Congress, Dong Biwu criticized the idea that some cadres attach importance to economics over political science and law. He pointed out that in the period of socialist construction, it is completely correct to attach importance to economic construction, but without the strengthening and development of political and legal work, we cannot guarantee our economic construction and the socialist industrialization of the country.

On September 19, 1956, dong Biwu said in his speech at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China that "when we work in accordance with the legal system, we will only do our work better and smoother, and we will not do it worse or go less smoothly." ”

Second, Dong Biwu analyzed the reasons why the law was not observed

As for the reasons for not abiding by the law, in 1957, when analyzing the reasons for the lack of compliance with the law at a meeting of the chief procurator of the military procuratorate and the president of the military court, Dong Biwu pointed out: "Why does it not pay attention to and do not abide by the phenomenon of non-compliance with the law often occurs?" This has its historical roots. Before our Party led the people to seize power in the whole country, when it was oppressed to the point of being unable to take advantage of the legal struggle, all revolutionary work was carried out in a breach of the legal system of the old rule; after seizing power in the whole country, we completely destroyed the old organs of power and the old legal system. Therefore, the psychology of hatred of the old legal system has a profound foundation in our Party and among the revolutionary masses, and it is self-evident that this hatred of the old legal system may give rise to contempt for all legal systems. ”

These expositions by Dong Biwu analyzed the reasons for not attaching importance to and not abiding by the legal system under the social conditions at that time, and held that this had its historical roots, and this root stemmed from the psychology of hatred of the old legal system, which caused contempt for all legal systems.

Regarding the phenomenon of not observing the law, for example, the real theme behind zhao Shuli's "Little Two Black Marriage" work, the male protagonist is called Yue Dong solstice, is the village militia leader, he and Zhi Yingxiang free love, the result is the control of the village government on the grounds of "corruption" persecution to death. Later, after the investigation by the county government, the facts of the case were clarified and the murderer was punished. However, when Zhao Shuli investigated, he was surprised to find that the victim's two families did not agree with the "free love" between Yue Dong solstice and Zhi Yingxiang, believing that although Yue Dong solstice did not cause death, he should be taught a lesson, and others in the village also thought so. However, at that time, the government had already promulgated the "Interim Regulations on Marriage" and the "Law on obstructing marriage", and the law supported free love, but people did not have much understanding of the laws promulgated by the government, showing that there was a gap between the legal provisions and the actual situation, and the laws were not observed.

Third, dong Biwu's thinking on the legal system is the importance of a complete legal system and a law that reflects the will of the people

In 1957, Dong Biwu pointed out at the meeting of the chief procurator of the military procuratorate and the president of the military court: "At present, the problems in our legal work are that the law is incomplete, and the other is that the law is not observed. It can be seen from his speech that Dong Biwu pointed out at that time that in terms of legal work, there must be a complete legal system, otherwise, it will become a problem in legal work.

On September 19, 1956, Dong Biwu pointed out in his speech at the Eighth National Congress of the Party that "the legal system of our country is the expression of the will of the people, so to violate the national legal system is to go against the will of the people." To some extent, Dong Biwu believes that the laws we formulate are laws that reflect the will of the people, so violating the national legal system is against the will of the people.

Fourth, the implementation path of Dong Biwu's legal system thinking

(1) Regarding the relationship between the party and the state, Dong Biwu put forward the view that the party and the government should be separated

At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Dong Biwu clearly put forward the view of separating the party from the government, saying, "The party leads the state power, but this is by no means the party's direct management of state affairs, and it is by no means that the party and the state power can be regarded as a thing." The Party leads state power, but it does not give orders to state organs. He clearly pointed out that the relationship between the Party and the organs of power is: "(i) to give definite instructions on the nature and direction of the work of the organs of power; (ii) to implement the Party's policies through the organs of power and their working departments and to supervise their activities; (iii) to select and promote loyal and capable cadres (party and non-Party) to work in the organs of power."

(2) Functionaries of state organs must abide by the law, and especially leading cadres must set an example.

Dong Biwu pointed out, "With regard to the Constitution and laws, we must take the lead in abiding by them and lead the masses to abide by them. If we ourselves do not abide by the Constitution and the law, how can we lead the masses of the people to abide by the law? "To make the masses abide by the law, we must first ask the functionaries of state organs, especially the leaders, to set an example." The staff of the State organs must have a full understanding of the laws and decrees in order to correctly implement and observe the laws in an exemplary manner."

With regard to the phenomenon of not attaching importance to and not abiding by the state legal system, Dong Biwu pointed out: "Handling affairs according to law is one of the main ways to eliminate the phenomenon of not attaching importance to and not abiding by the state legal system. "We oppose all illegal acts that are not done according to the regulations."

Regarding judicial procedures, Dong Biwu pointed out, "Judicial activities must have a certain form. There is nothing in the world that is not expressed in a certain form. ...... Formalism and form are two different things. "Doing things according to procedures can make the work better, more reasonable, and more scientific, and ensure that the case is handled correctly, legally, and in a timely manner, otherwise it will be troublesome or even go wrong."

(3) Vigorously strengthen the work of publicizing and educating on the legal system and enhance the concept of the legal system among cadres and the masses.

Dong Biwu pointed out: "An urgent task in further strengthening the building of our country's legal system is to vigorously strengthen the work of publicizing and educating on the legal system, raise the legal concept of cadres and the masses of the people, let everyone know what is legal and what is illegal, and let everyone know that strictly abiding by the state legal system means safeguarding one's own democratic rights and being protected by the state." ”

In short, Dong Biwu's profound and incisive thinking on the legal system has given me a great touch and inspiration, and for the phenomenon of not abiding by the law, even in modern society, how to implement the laws formulated is still a problem that we need to think about and study now, and many of the measures proposed by Dong Biwu still have guiding significance.