Beyond Procedural Stagnation: Substantive Resolution of Disputes Arising from Chinese Normative Administrative Documents

Hua Lin; Zixuan Lu

doi:10.18778/0208-6069.114.07

Authors

Hua Lin China University of Political Science and Law https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6427-7126
Zixuan Lu Renmin University of China https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3658-4834

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/0208-6069.114.07

Keywords:

normative administrative documents, judicial review, substantive resolution of administrative disputes

Abstract

Normative Administrative Documents (NADs), commonly known as ‘red-headed documents’ play a significant role in the Chinese system of administrative governance. However, due to their sheer volume and the lack of clear procedural standards in their formulation, they have frequently become a source of rights infringements and administrative disputes, exposing blind spots in the fundamental rights protection. In the article, we advocate introducing direct judicial review for NADs. This proposal is not aimed at fully embracing strong-form review but rather conceptualises direct review as a limit on limits. In the first section, we concisely reconstruct the current incidental review system and formulate the research problem by identifying the challenges of procedural stagnation, specifically conceptual ambiguity, weak enforcement, and limited legal effect. In the second section, we compare existing reform approaches and evaluate the relative superiority and feasibility of direct judicial review. In the third section, the article proposes a non-linear, multi-level, and differentiated model of normative oversight, centred on the substantive resolution of administrative disputes and tailored to the functional characteristics of NADs. This model distinguishes between instrumental, generative, and displacive types of administrative disputes and coordinates administrative reconsideration, administrative litigation, and constitutional review.

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