Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2017)
Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2017)
Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (Amended in 2017)
Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No. 71
June 27, 2017
(Passed on April 4, 1989 by the 2nd Session of the 7th National People's Congress, and amended for the first time according to the Decision on Revising the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China at the 11th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress on November 1, 2014, and amended for the second time according to the Decision on Revising the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China and the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China at the 28th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress on June 27, 2017.)
Table of Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Scope of Case Which May Be Accepted
Chapter III Jurisdiction
Chapter IV Parties
Chapter V Evidence
Chapter VI Institution and Acceptance of Proceedings
Chapter VII Trial and Adjudication
Section 1 General Provisions
Section 2 Ordinary Procedure at First Instance
Section 3 Summary Procedure
Section 4 Procedure at Second Instance
Section 5 Procedure for Trial Supervision
Chapter VIII Enforcement
Chapter IX Foreign-related Administrative Litigation
Chapter X Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 The Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Law") is enacted on the basis of the Constitution in order to ensure the impartial and timely hearing of administrative cases and settlement of administrative disputes by people's courts, to protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organizations and to supervise the exercise of functions in accordance with the law by administrative organs.
Article 2 Where citizens, legal persons or other organizations which consider that administrative acts of administrative organs or their personnel have infringed their legitimate rights and interests, they shall have the right to institute proceedings in people's courts according to this Law.
For the purpose of the preceding paragraph, administrative acts include administrative acts made by the organizations empowered by laws, regulations, and rules.
Article 3 A people's court shall guarantee the rights of citizens, legal persons and other organizations to file a lawsuit and shall accept an administrative case that shall be accepted in accordance with the law.
Administrative organs and their personnel shall not intervene or hamper the acceptance of administrative cases by a people's court.
The responsible person of the administrative organ being sued shall appear in court. If he fails to appear in court, he shall appoint the corresponding personnel of the administration organ to appear in court.
(Relevant articles: Legislation 1)
Article 4 People's Courts shall exercise their power to hear and adjudicate administrative cases independently and according to the law and shall be free from interference by administrative organs, social organizations and individuals.
People's courts shall establish administrative tribunals to hear administrative cases.
Article 5 People's courts shall hear administrative cases based on the facts of such cases and in accordance with the law.
Article 6 In hearing administrative cases, people's courts shall examine the lawfulness of administrative acts.
Article 7 In hearing administrative cases, people's courts shall implement a collegiate system, a challenge system, a system of public hearings and a system of the court of second instance being the court of last instance according to the law.
Article 8 Parties to administrative proceedings shall be equal in legal status.
Article 9 Citizens of all ethnic groups shall have the right to institute administrative proceedings in the languages and scripts of their own ethnic groups.
People's courts in regions which are inhabited by ethnic minorities or which are inhabited by more than one ethnic groups shall hear and adjudicate cases and issue legal documents in the languages and scripts in common use by the local ethnic groups.
People's courts shall provide translations for those litigants who do not have a good command of the languages and scripts in common use by local ethnic groups.
Article 10 Parties shall have the right to argue their cases during administrative proceedings.
Article 11 People's procuratorates shall have the right to exercise legal supervision over administrative proceedings.
Chapter II Scope of Cases Which May Be Accepted
Article 12 A people's court shall accept the following types of proceedings instituted by citizens, legal persons or other organizations that:
1. are dissatisfied with an administrative penalty such as administrative detention, suspension or revocation of a permit or license, an order to suspend production or business activities, confiscation of illegal gains or property, imposition of a fine and warning;
2. are dissatisfied with an administrative coercive measure or administrative execution such as restriction of personal freedom or sealing up, seizing or freezing property;
3. in case of an application for administrative licensing, are dissatisfied with the administrative organs' refusal to accept or failure to respond to the application within a legal time limit, or with other decisions made by the administrative organs on administrative licensing;
4. are dissatisfied with the decisions made by the administrative organs on the ownerships or use rights of land, mineral resources, water, forests, mountain ridges, prairies, wastelands, intertidal zones, sea areas and other natural resources;
5. are dissatisfied with the decisions on expropriation, requisition and compensation therefor;
6. in case of an application for performance of the statutory duties to protect the personal right and property right as well as other legitimate rights and interests by the administrative organs, are dissatisfied with the administrative organs' refusal to perform or failure to respond to the application;
7. consider that the administrative organs have infringed their autonomy in management or rural land contractual management right and rural land management right;
8. consider that the administrative organs abuse administrative powers to eliminate or limit competition;
9. consider that the administrative organs raise funds, amortize expenses or require them to perform other obligations in an illegal way;
10. consider that the administrative organs fail to pay pensions, the subsistence allowances or social insurance benefits in accordance with the law;
11. consider that the administrative organs fail to perform in accordance with the law or the agreement, or illegally change or terminate government franchise agreements, agreements on land and house expropriation and compensation and other agreements; or
12. consider that the administrative organs have infringed other legitimate rights and interests such as personal rights and property rights.
In addition to the provisions in the preceding paragraph, people's courts may accept other administrative cases for which proceedings may be instituted under laws and regulations.
(Relevant articles: Articles 2 Legislation 1)
Article 13 People's courts shall not accept the proceedings instituted by citizens, legal persons or other organizations for the following matters:
1. State actions involving national defense or diplomacy;
2. administrative laws and regulations, or universally binding decisions or orders formulated and promulgated by administrative organs;
3. decisions of administrative organs to reward, punish, appoint or dismiss personnel of administrative organs; or
4. administrative acts for which the law provides that final adjudication is to be conducted by administrative organs.
(Relevant articles: Articles 1 Legislation 1)
Chapter III Jurisdiction
Article 14 People's courts at the grass-roots level shall have jurisdiction over the administrative cases of first instance.
Article 15 Intermediate people's courts shall have jurisdiction over the following administrative cases of first instance:
1. proceedings instituted against the administrative acts of any department under the State Council or the people's government at county level or above;
2. cases handled by the customs;
3. major and complicated cases which arise in their area of jurisdiction; and
4. other cases under the jurisdiction of the intermediate people's court as specified by law.
(Relevant articles: Legislation 1)
Article 16 Higher people's courts shall have jurisdiction as courts of first instance over major and complicated cases which arise in their areas of jurisdiction.
Article 17 The Supreme People's Court shall have jurisdiction as the court of first instance over major and complicated cases arising throughout the country.
Article 18 Jurisdiction over administrative cases shall be exercised by the people's court at the place where the administrative organ which originally performed the administrative act (from which the case arose) is located. For cases which have been reconsidered, jurisdiction over such cases may be exercised by the people's court at the place where such reconsideration organ is located.
Upon the approval of the Supreme People's Court, a higher people's court may, according to the actual situation of the trial, determine several people's courts to have cross-regional jurisdiction over administrative cases.
(Relevant articles: Legislation 1)
Article 19 Jurisdiction over cases arising from dissatisfaction with administrative orders which restrict personal freedom shall be exercised by the people's court at the place of residence of the defendant or plaintiff.
(Relevant articles: Legislation 1)
Article 20 Jurisdiction over administrative litigation involving real property shall be exercised by the people's court at the place where the real property is located.
(Relevant articles: Legislation 1)
Article 21 Where two or more people's courts have jurisdiction over a case, the plaintiff may institute proceedings in either or any one of such people's courts. Where the plaintiff institutes proceedings in two or more people's courts with jurisdiction, the people's court that first places the case on its trial docket shall have jurisdiction.
Article 22 Where a people's court discovers that a case which it has accepted does not fall within its jurisdiction, such people's court shall transfer the case to a people's court which has jurisdiction over the case. The people's court to which a case has been transferred shall accept the case. In the case that the people's court to which a case has been transferred considers the case transferred is not under its jurisdiction in accordance with the relevant provisions, it shall apply to a higher-level people's court for designation of jurisdiction and shall not retransfer such case on its own initiative.
Article 23 Where, due to special reasons, a people's court which has jurisdiction cannot exercise such jurisdiction, jurisdiction shall be designated by a higher-level people's court.
A dispute between people's courts over jurisdiction shall be resolved through consultation between the parties to the dispute. Where the dispute cannot be resolved through consultation, such dispute shall be submitted to a people's court which is a higher-level people's court to the parties to the dispute for designation of jurisdiction.
Article 24 Higher-level people's courts shall have the power to hear administrative cases of first instance which are within the jurisdiction of lower-level people's courts.
Where a lower-level people's court considers that an administrative case of first instance within its jurisdiction shall be tried by or subject to a jurisdiction designated by a higher-level people's court, the lower-level people's court may report the case to a higher-level people's court for decision.
Chapter IV Parties
Article 25 The concerned person to an administrative act and other citizens, legal persons or other organizations that have an interest in the administrative act are entitled to institute proceedings.
Where a citizen who has the right to institute proceedings dies, his close relatives may institute proceedings.
Where legal person or other organizations which have the right to institute proceedings are terminated, the legal persons or other organizations which succeed to their rights may institute proceedings.
Where the people's procuratorate finds that administrative organs responsible for the supervision and management of such areas as the ecological environment and resources protection, food and drug safety, state-owned assets protection and grant of land use rights for state-owned land perform duties unlawfully or omit to perform duties, infringing upon the national or public interests, it may institute a procuratorial proposal to the administrative authority to urge such authority to perform its duty in accordance with the law.
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