THE Communist Party of China (CPC) set the blueprint for rule of law in the world’s second-largest economy during a three-day meeting that ended in Beijing on Thursday, which also highlighted the Party’s leadership and the overarching role of the Constitution in the country’s legal system.

    According to a communique issued after the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC, the overall target of the CPC’s current drive to advance rule of law is to “form a system serving the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics” and build a country with socialist rule of law.

    China will ensure the leadership of the CPC in the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, the communique read.

    It added that “to realize the rule of law, the country should be ruled in line with the Constitution.”

    This is the first time a plenary session of the CPC Central Committee has taken rule of law as its central theme.

    The National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee should play a better role in supervising the Constitution’s implementation, and a mechanism to examine the legitimacy of major decision-making should be set up for governments, with a lifelong liability accounting system for major decisions and a mechanism to backtrack liabilities, it said.

    The meeting also adopted a decision from the CPC Central Committee on “major issues concerning comprehensively advancing rule of law,” and heard a work report of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

    Analysts said that the changes would be aimed to broaden the independence of the judiciary specially dealing with individual cases.

    (Xinhua)