Experts forecast that the Property Law will continue to remain the focus of legislation in 2008.

As the Supreme People's Court is currently drafting judicial implementation of the Property Law, there are two challenges confronting the lawmakers - a unified registry system for real estate, and the expropriation of land, the annual report on China's rule of law 2008, said

Compiled by the Law Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the report, also dubbed the blue book on the rule of law, said that the Property Law's implementation still required more work including the making of other special laws.

The Property Law is regarded as a landmark in China's civil legislation, partly because it has set a record in the number of times a single law has been reviewed - eight times since 2002.

What is more, it has strengthened protection of private ownership, and cared about people's livelihood, the report said.

Along with the implementation of the Property Law, the Labor Contract Law and the Employment Promotion Law, discussions about laws related to gender are likely to emerge this year, the report said.

Legal experts are pushing to make the law on preventing domestic violence as part of the NPC's legislation plan for the next five years.

Despite the progress in legislation, however, the report pointed out that law enforcement was the key that influences China's rule of law.

Huge challenges have appeared after the Labor Contract Law was adopted last year. "Some companies' large-scale endeavors to sidestep the law are shocking", Liu Huawen, assistant researcher with the institute, said in the report.

Liu said efforts must be made now to find out how to form a mechanism to restrict those enterprises' malicious acts and protect workers' rights.

China's legislation is shifting the focus from regulating economic matters to resolving social issues.

According to Li Lin, director of the Law Institute of CASS and chief editor of the report, only 4.7 percent of new legislation passed by the four National People's Congresses (NPC) prior 2003 were on social issues, but commercial matters accounted for 36.5 percent.

But social legislation has been increasing in recent years since the 10th NPC. It has increased to 20 percent at the NPC level, and 40 percent at the provincial and lower levels, in the past five years.

The blue book on the rule of law, published annually since 2003, also said that people's opinions are being heard more.

"Most of the laws that involve people's livelihood have solicited public opinion before being passed," Li said.

(China Daily, March 14, 2008)