CCTV reporter: As a representative of the National People’s Congress in the legal field, what issues will your proposal focus on this year?
Liu Shoumin:As a representative of the National People’s Congress in the legal field, I have been paying more attention to the topic of the rule of law and the development of market economy. This year, there are both old problems that have been called for to be solved, and new problems that have been discovered recently and should be paid attention to. The former, for example, concerns the revision and improvement of China’s criminal record system, that is, the system of sealing up and eliminating criminal records, so as to help minor offenders integrate into society smoothly, and the unification and improvement of criminal justice policies to effectively protect private enterprises and entrepreneurs in China. The latter, for example, suggests perfecting the independent director system of listed companies in China, strictly prohibiting the outsourcing of the administrative law enforcement power and compulsory measures power of city appearance management in disguised form, as well as opinions and suggestions on the integrated effect of the comprehensive reform system of the court judicial system and the comprehensive revision of the payment method of legal fees, and so on.
CCTV reporter: You have put forward some suggestions on revising and perfecting China’s criminal record system. What are the characteristics of the criminal record system in China? How do you think this system should be improved?
Liu Shoumin:In 2012, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued the Opinions on Establishing a Criminal Record System for Criminals, which established a basic criminal record system in China, including a criminal information registration and management system, a criminal information inquiry or notification system, and a minor misdemeanor criminal record storage system. The existence of criminal records will inevitably have many adverse effects on the work, life and study of the recorded people, and it is easy to form a "label effect" of "once a thief, always a thief", which will further hinder the recorded people from turning over a new leaf, and even make some people go to the opposite side of society because there is no hope of returning to society.
At present, China’s laws and related policies only require the storage of minor misdemeanor records of minors under the age of 18 at the time of committing crimes, and there is no provision for the elimination of minor misdemeanor records, nor for the conditional storage or elimination of adult misdemeanor records. We have noticed that on the one hand, the proportion of misdemeanors in the current criminal structure is getting higher and higher, and on the other hand, the scope of misdemeanors is getting wider and wider. For example, the crime of obstructing driving and the crime of throwing objects at high altitude are new crimes recently added. In addition, the crime of dangerous driving, the crime of stealing identity cards and the crime of replacing exams have been added before, especially the crime of drunk dangerous driving has become the first crime with the largest number. In the long run, a certain number of people who need to be reintegrated into society after serving their sentences for misdemeanors have accumulated, and these people are facing many practical problems. Therefore, my idea is to explore ways to eliminate minor misdemeanor records in time on the basis of sealing them, and extend this policy to adults with minor crimes, that is, to seal their criminal records conditionally and eventually eliminate them, so as to create conditions for these people to reintegrate into society smoothly, and also to relieve the ideological burden for the affected family members behind them and maintain social harmony. This is one of the social problems that I have been paying attention to in recent years.
CCTV reporter: Private enterprises are an important part of China’s non-public economy. You suggest improving the criminal judicial protection policy for private enterprises and entrepreneurs. What are the characteristics of this policy in China? What kind of role did it play? How do you think we should continue to improve this policy?
Liu Shoumin:At the first meeting of the 13th National People’s Congress in 2018, I put forward ten suggestions on criminal justice policies to protect private enterprises and entrepreneurs. However, in recent years, the criminal justice environment in which private enterprises and entrepreneurs live has not been fundamentally improved.
On the other hand, the central government’s support policy for private enterprises is clear and consistent. The Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate have also issued judicial policy documents to protect private enterprises and private entrepreneurs for many years, but the effect is not satisfactory. Therefore, I sorted out the problems in criminal justice practice, and found that as far as criminal justice policy is concerned, there are some problems, such as insufficient attention, low rank and effectiveness of relevant regulations, inconsistent regulations of various organs, and lack of procedural guarantee of substantive policies. Therefore, it is suggested that based on the relatively systematic judicial standards issued by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the list of exemption and punishment piloted in various places, the organization should make unified revision and improvement and upgrade it to an executable judicial interpretation or legal provision, so as to make due judicial contributions to improving the rule of law and business environment.
CCTV reporter: Litigation costs are one of the main costs of litigation. You suggest amending the method of paying litigation fees. What are the characteristics of this method now? How do you think it should be revised?
Liu Shoumin:As one of the main litigation costs, legal fees have an important influence on the exertion of litigation functions and the establishment of judicial authority. Reasonable legal fees bring people closer to justice, otherwise justice will become a "luxury". The current method of paying legal fees was formulated by the State Council in 2006. Some rules are not easy to operate, and there are also some blind spots. The discretion of the court in dealing with legal fees is too large and not uniform everywhere.
As the legal fee system should be an important part of the litigation system, it is suggested that: (1) relevant special legislation should be made; Scientifically formulate the classification standards of litigation cases; Further clarify the sharing rules of legal fees; Refine and clarify the remedies when the parties have objections to the calculation and sharing of legal fees; Improve the financial system related to legal fees to facilitate the parties to pay and refund fees.
CCTV reporter: Many listed companies have set up independent directors. Could you please introduce what is the independent director system? How do you suggest to further improve China’s independent director system?
Liu Shoumin:Companies, especially listed companies, are important market players in China and play a great role in economic development. An independent director refers to a director who is independent of the company’s shareholders and does not work in the company, and has no important business or professional contact with the company or its managers, and makes independent judgments on the company’s affairs. The system originated in the west. In order to prevent "insiders" from controlling the company and protect the interests of minority shareholders, China has also established the independent director system and gradually improved it. It can be said that the independent director system is an important part of China’s corporate governance structure.
However, due to various reasons, China’s independent directors are generally "formalized", and there are serious problems of "vase directors" and "human directors". Recently, Kangmei Pharmaceutical Company’s class action lawsuit of securities misrepresentation ruled that independent directors should bear huge compensation liabilities of hundreds of millions of yuan, which completely exposed this problem. After research and reflection, I advocate that it is necessary to improve this system by taking the problem as the guide and learning from the experience of advanced countries. My suggestions are as follows: (1) setting up independent directors and the company’s board of supervisors reasonably and defining the division of labor; Clarify the nature and responsibilities of independent directors different from internal directors from legislation; Reform the nomination and selection mechanism of independent directors; Perfecting regulations to protect independent directors’ right to know; Reform the remuneration system of independent directors and further clarify the scope of independent directors’ diligence obligations; Establish a scientific and reasonable third-party evaluation mechanism.
CCTV reporter: Can you share your new work plans in the future?
Liu Shoumin:I am a representative and a front-line lawyer. It is my profession to provide various types of legal services to clients, so I have the conditions to timely perceive the legal needs of society, the effect of law enforcement and the public’s evaluation and expectation of judicial justice. I will continue to give full play to my professional advantages, pay attention to social hot spots, difficulties and pain points, put forward bills, suggestions and opinions on legislation, amendment of laws and promotion of judicial fairness through various platforms in time, live up to my professional duties as a lawyer and my trust as a deputy to the National People’s Congress, and make due efforts to create a good judicial and market environment.
(Liu Shoumin: Deputy to the National People’s Congress and Deputy Secretary of the Industry Party Committee of Sichuan Lawyers Association)
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