With the popularity of family cars, urban parking difficulties have become a common problem, and Beijing has actively echoed the public's call for legislation on this issue, reflecting the greatest people's livelihood goodwill. Photo/ Beijing News data map
Recently, the Beijing News reporter exclusively learned from the relevant departments of Beijing Municipality that the "parking arrears of 1 yuan penalty of 200 yuan" that has aroused the attention of the public and experts and has been responded to by the National People's Congress has been revised a few days ago. According to the relevant decision of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, the relevant provisions of the Beijing Municipal Motor Vehicle Parking Regulations have been significantly revised.
The provisions that triggered the situation of "1 yuan in arrears and were fined 200 yuan" came from the Beijing Municipal Motor Vehicle Parking Regulations. The regulations on parking fines in the Ordinance have caused many troubles to the public because of the unreasonable amount and procedures of the fines. In October last year, He Haibo, a professor at Tsinghua University Law School, combined feedback from relatives and friends and consulted relevant regulations to consider it a universal legal issue, and on November 16 of that year, he proposed to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to review the legality of the Beijing Motor Vehicle Parking Regulations.
The Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress immediately launched a study and issued a review opinion against the Legislative Affairs Office of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, holding that there are many inconsistencies between the relevant provisions and the administrative punishment law of the higher-level law, and urging the Beijing People's Congress to adjust and improve the amount and procedures of fines from the actual situation, which is in line with safeguarding public rights and interests. In September this year, the Beijing People's Congress revised the Beijing Motor Vehicle Parking Regulations to make the relevant provisions more reasonable and echo the public's demands.
Previously, the receipt of a 200 yuan fine for parking arrears of 1 yuan was not an isolated phenomenon, which not only made it difficult for car owners to understand, but also caused some legal experts to think, and contributed to the revision of relevant terms by the Beijing People's Congress. Figure/network screenshot
Looking at the revision process of the Beijing Motor Vehicle Parking Regulations, it is a good reflection of the positive interaction between the legislature and the people, as well as between the higher and lower legislatures. Citizens made suggestions on unreasonable local regulations, the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress examined them, the Beijing People's Congress responded and amended the law in accordance with regulations, and all parties actively cooperated to jointly promote the improvement of an unreasonable regulation, which can be described as a model of legal improvement.
This interaction also means that the perfection of the law is not only a matter for the legislature, but also for every citizen. Whatever the reason, 1 yuan in arrears will be fined 200 yuan, and the previous regulation ignores the complex situation of public parking, which not only violates the proportional principle of administrative law, but also has the suspicion of not teaching and condemning.
For such an obviously unreasonable regulation, many citizens are annoyed, but more importantly, they must take active actions to promote the change of unreasonable regulations. Professor He Haibo is of course a professional professor in the field of law, but he is also a citizen, deeply aware of the parking difficulties of himself and his relatives and friends around him, and his gesture of actively making suggestions from a practical point of view has set an example for every citizen.
In fact, our Constitution already gives citizens the right to criticize, suggest and supervise. Citizens' participation in legislation is also supported by law. The proposal for reviewing the regulations submitted by Professor He Haibo this time can eventually promote the Beijing People's Congress to revise the "Beijing Motor Vehicle Parking Regulations", which is actually based on an important constitutional supervision system in China - the regulatory filing and review system.
Under this system, citizens can make suggestions on the constitutionality and legality of administrative regulations and local regulations in accordance with the law, and if the relevant departments accept the recommendations, they can initiate a review to provide a basis for amending the law. Some experts believe that the continuous emergence of cases of allowing the public to participate in government decision-making through the channel of filing and review has played a positive role in improving the quality of local legislation.
It can also be seen from this that China has perfect institutional arrangements for citizens to participate in legislative revision. Under this system design, citizens enjoy sufficient space for expression, suggestion and supervision, so that laws and regulations can constantly perceive the needs of citizens, keep up with the changes of the times, maintain vitality, and better serve the people.
In mid-October 2021, in order to do a good job in the legislative work of prepaid card management, the Beijing Municipal People's Congress organized a series of legislative forums. Nowadays, open door legislation has become the norm, allowing different subjects to fully interact, listen carefully to the voices of the people, and actively respond to social needs, which also reflects the respect of the legal department for citizens' rights. Photo: Beijing Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee portal
In fact, in order to ensure that the law keeps pace with the times and resonates with social conditions and public opinion, the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress at all levels has also continuously improved its institutional mechanisms and strengthened the capacity building of filing and review in recent years.
For example, since 2020, with reference to the relevant requirements of the National People's Congress, Beijing has included the normative documents of the "one committee and two procuratorates" into the scope of filing and reported to the Standing Committee that the filing and review work has been basically completed, and the district-level filing and review information platform has been fully completed and put into use.
At the just-concluded 33rd session of the Standing Committee of the 15th Municipal People's Congress, the "Regulations on the Filing and Review of Normative Documents of the Standing Committees of the People's Congresses at All Levels in Beijing Municipality (Revised Draft)" also proposed to adhere to the guiding principle of "having a must, having a case to be reviewed, and having mistakes to be corrected", further strengthening the review of legal filings, and better realizing legal functions.
Law is the "guardian spirit" of maintaining social order and public interests, which is not only abstract logic, nor is it an immutable dogma, but it is to connect with the actual feelings of citizens and give citizens a definite sense of security. The revision of the Beijing Motor Vehicle Parking Regulations, in which the interaction between different subjects, especially the positive response to citizens' participation in legislation, reflects the tolerance of the legal department and is more permeated with respect for citizens' rights.
Beijing News commentator 丨 Wang Yanhu
Editor 丨He Rui
Proofreading 丨 Lucy