Law, the procuratorate & the courts in the PRC
The PRC legal system for Guokao: socialist rule of law, the courts, the procuratorate, the supervision commissions and Party leadership over law.
The constitutional foundation
The People's Republic of China describes itself as a "socialist country governed by the rule of law" (依法治国, yifa zhiguo), a formula written into Article 5 of the 1982 Constitution by the 1999 amendment and reinforced by the 2018 amendment that added "the leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics" to Article 1. The decisive interpretive key for the Guokao candidate is that the PRC practices rule by law (法治) under Party leadership, not the separation of powers. The Fourth Plenum of the 18th Central Committee (October 2014) issued the landmark Decision on Comprehensively Advancing Governance of the Country According to Law, the first plenum in CPC history devoted wholly to law. It enshrined the principle that the Party must "lead legislation, guarantee law enforcement, support the administration of justice, and take the lead in abiding by the law."
The unitary, NPC-supreme model
The legal order rests on the supremacy of the National People's Congress (NPC), not on judicial review. Under Article 62, the NPC enacts and amends basic statutes (criminal, civil, state-organ law) and possesses the power to supervise the enforcement of the Constitution; its Standing Committee (NPCSC) under Article 67 interprets the Constitution and statutes. There is no independent constitutional court. Since the 2018 establishment of the Constitution and Law Committee (formerly the Law Committee), the NPCSC conducts "recording and review" (备案审查) of administrative regulations and local rules for conflicts with statute. The Legislation Law of 2000 (amended 2015 and 2023) sets the hierarchy: the Constitution prevails over basic laws, basic laws over ordinary laws, laws over administrative regulations (State Council), and those over local regulations and departmental rules.
The four-tier court and procuratorate system
Articles 128–140 of the Constitution establish the People's Courts and People's Procuratorates as the adjudicative and prosecutorial organs of state. Both are organized in four tiers: the Supreme People's Court (SPC) and Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) at the apex, then high, intermediate and basic-level (county) organs. Article 132 declares courts "exercise judicial power independently" — but independently of administrative organs, social groups and individuals, not of the Party or the people's congresses to which they are accountable. The SPC reports annually to the NPC; its president is elected by the NPC for terms concurrent with it. Critically, China is a civil-law jurisdiction without binding precedent, yet the SPC issues binding judicial interpretations (司法解释) and, since 2010, guiding cases (指导性案例) that lower courts must "refer to." The Civil Code of 2020 — the PRC's first code so titled, effective 1 January 2021 — consolidated contract, property, tort, marriage and inheritance law and is a high-yield fact.
