Preface

       The Epoch-Making Significance of Comprehensively Advancing the Rule of Law

      “The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Certain Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Advancing the Law-Based Governance of China”, approved by the Forth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC, is the first landmark strategic deployment in leading the whole nation to fully advance the rule of law at the new beginning of China’s development in the form of the highest political documents and the most authoritative political decisions of the ruling Party, which is an unprecedented top-level design and overall planning for the comprehensive promotion of scientific legislation, strict law enforcement, fair judicature, and national law-abiding in the construction of the rule-of-law system for socialism with Chinese characteristics. The promulgation and implementation of this Resolution marks the development of the CPC’s ideas of leadership and governance, strategies of managing state affairs and politics, and of a governance mode that has reached a new historic height of ruling the country according to law, ruling the Party according to rules, ruling in accordance with the Constitution, and ruling according to law as a modern political party; it means that the “Five-in-One” construction (the economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological construction) and the comprehensive deepening of the reform of contemporary China has entered a new stage of rationalization, rule of law and standardization; it means that the modernization of contemporary China’s state governance system and ability of governance have achieved a solid step towards a more mature institutionalization, a more complete system, and a more powerful implementation, which marks a second spring of comprehensive high-speed development and coordinated development of the construction of the socialist rule of law and management of state affairs according to law with Chinese characteristics.

      The rule of law makes a country prosperous and strong.¹ Since 1840, the Chinese people have fought bravely for national independence, national liberation, and freedom and equality, and made unremitting efforts to create a strong and prosperous country of liberty, democracy, and republicanism. The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 has created unprecedented political, economic, social, and cultural conditions for China’s development of its people’s democracy, construction of a new legal system, and realization of the rule of law. In order to build China into a modern power, in 1978, China implemented the policy of reform and opening-up, advocating to develop socialist democracy, improve socialist legal system, make democracy institutionalized and legalized, and adhere to the basic principle of legal construction— “There must be laws to abide by; the laws must be strictly observed; laws already enacted must be enforced to the letter, and violators of law must be brought to justice”, which had opened up a new phase of the construction of socialist democracy and legal system, achieving a fundamental change from “rule of man” to “rule of law”. In 1992, while establishing the socialist market economy system, China made the principle clear that the market economy was that of the rule of law in a certain sense, and proposed to establish the legal system of socialist market economy as an important target for the construction of the rule of law, which had injected the inner motive of the market economy into the development of the rule of law. In 1997, the 15th CPC National Congress established the rule of law as the basic strategy for the Party to lead the people to manage state and social affairs, and manage economic and cultural undertakings, with the clearly defined development goal to build a socialist country ruled by law, achieving a historic transformation from “governing the country with legal system” to “governing the country according to law”, marking the construction of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics enter a new stage of ruling the country according to law. In 2002, the 16th CPC National Congress clearly proposed that the development of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics should be based on the integration of the Party’s leadership, the rule by the people, and the rule of law, providing the correct way of development and the correct direction for the advancement of the rule of law and the construction of a law-based country. The 17th CPC National Congress formulated the legal system of socialism with Chinese characteristics as planned based on the comprehensive implementation of the basic strategy of governing the country according to law. With the continuous advancement of law-based administration and the reform of judicature, the construction of the rule of law has made remarkable achievements. Since the 18th CPC National Congress and the Third Plenary