Dr. Hu Chao published an academic paper entitled "Historical Changes in the Constitutional Status of Local People's Congresses: On the Nature and Status of Local Regulations" in the 6th issue of the Journal of China University of Political Science and Law in 2024. Founded in September 2007, the Journal of China University of Political Science and Law is a comprehensive academic journal in the humanities and social sciences with distinctive legal characteristics (CSSCI extended version journal).

Abstract: In the case of substantive differentiation of central state power, local governments still retain a certain form of "unity of deliberation and action", which is an important feature of the 1954 Constitution. The direct reason for the design of this system is that the principle of "central deliberation, local affairs" leads to the lack of deliberative functions of local people's congresses, which reflects the democratic concept of substantive identity. The local people's congresses in the 1954 Constitution are only local executive organs of the central government's will. Based on the reflection on the instrumentalization of democracy and excessive centralization inevitably brought about by the concept of substantive identity democracy, the 1982 Constitution began to expand people's democracy, strengthen the deliberative functions of local people's congresses, and transform them into real local public opinion organs. As legal norms formulated by public opinion organs, local regulations have "quasi-legality" and "creativity without authorization" are their core characteristics, but the scope of their formulation authority is constrained by the unity of the legal system and their own democratic ability. The central government can only carry out framework legislation on local affairs, so that local laws and regulations still have a certain room for creation. Based on the constitutional status of local people's congresses and the nature of local regulations, "inconsistency" with the superior law is the norm for local regulations, and does not necessarily constitute "contradiction" with the superior law.

Keyword: local people's congresses; the relationship between the central and local governments; local regulations; Principle of Reservation of Law

Introduction of author: Hu Chao, male, from Dezhou, Shandong Province, lecturer at Jiangsu University Law School (School of Discipline Inspection and Supervision), doctor of law from Minmin University of Chinese, main research direction is constitutional law and supervision law.