The promulgation of the "General Principles of the People's Political Consultative Committee of the People's Republic of China", which functioned as the interim Constitution and basis of administrative regulations, marked the beginning of the development of administrative law in China.
By the end of the first five-year national economic development plan (1953-57), more than 870 pieces of administrative legislation had been promulgated. However, the anti-rightist movement in 1957 started to affect all kinds of legal research, including administrative law.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution, research gradually resumed on administrative law. However, no treaties had been published on Chinese administrative law by the end of the 1970s.
The Third Plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party held in 1978 started economic reform and emphasized the importance of strengthening the democratic dictatorship and socialist democracy, and the establishment of a legal system. Many pieces of legislation concerning public administration were promulgated to facilitate economic reform.
In 1982, the fourth Constitution was promulgated, which was, as a fundamental law of a state, the main source of administrative legislation in China because the status of administrative regulation has been formally recognized in the 1982 Constitution.
It should be noted that it is obvious that administrative law was regarded as a tool to support economic reform since the Decision on the Reform of Economic System, adopted in 1984 by the Third Plenary session of the 12th Central Committee, put forward the issue of the separation of governmental administration from the normal activities of enterprises. This shows that the basis of legal theory behind Chinese administrative legislation continues to be legal instrumentalism, which reflects the Marxist jurisprudential theory.
The Thirteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party held in 1987 clearly put forward the task that administration should be conducted according to law, administrative law should be improved, and various kinds of administrative legislation should be enacted.
The shift in the definition of Administrative Law from the orthodox Russian approach of law, in support of public administration, to the acceptance of the Western approach of the application of the rule of law in public administration.
The promulgation of the Administration Litigation Law (ALL) in 1989 was the crystallization of theoretical research on administrative law for many years. The ALL has made it possible for individuals to bring a case against the administration and has also laid down the relevant criteria and procedures for administrative litigation. The corollary is that administration has to be undertaken according to law. Otherwise it will be very likely that concrete administrative decisions may be challenged before the people's courts. Although judicial review system is formally established by the ALL, the concept of challenging the decisions of administrative organs or their personnel is quite new to traditional Chinese culture. Soon after the adoption of the ALL, two more regulations were promulgated in 1990; the Regulation on Administrative Supervision in the People's Republic of China and the Regulation on Administrative Reconsideration.
By the time the State Compensation Law was promulgated in 1994, it was fair to say that a comprehensive system of administrative law was established in China. In March 1996, the Administrative Penalty Law was also enacted.
In less than 20 years, China has established an administrative law legal framework through the adoption of a various pieces of legislation.
