The main focus of the debate among Chinese scholars is on whether administrative law is used to protect or restrain the administrative organs in their exercise of administrative power.
One school argues that the origin of modern administrative law is from Western countries and is based on the constitutional principles of the rule of law and separation of powers. The second school of thought relies on traditional Marxist legal theory, maintaining that China's socialist administrative law and Western bourgeois administrative law are fundamentally different in nature. Their purpose and function are different as the former protects the interests of the people, whereas the latter protects the interests of the ruling class.
The more commonly accepted approach asserts that administrative law in China has both functions to perform. On the one hand, administrative law has to ensure the effective exercise of administrative authority in order to achieve administrative efficiency, while on the other hand, administrative law has to protect the legitimate interest of people through controlling the exercise of executive power. This approach is supported and incorporated into the ALL.
