"The civil code will play a vital role in promoting the national economy, maintaining social stability and safeguarding people's lives," said Wang Shengming, director of the Civil Legislation Office with the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

The civil legislation affects both the daily life of individuals and the operation of corporations.

It regulates almost every activity that a corporation may undertake, such as trade, leasing, transportation, storage, fund-raising, settlement and the development of new products.

It also offers guidelines for individuals on the basic necessities of life - food, clothing, shelter and transportation - as well as recreation, marriage and family, among many other activities.

The civil code, which promotes equality, fairness and good faith, is fundamentally a law about rights.

"It explains to the public and administrative bodies what their obligations are by clarifying its regulatory scope and the rights of individuals and corporations," Wang said in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

The draft also helps administrative agencies shift their functions from micro-management of the economy to better market supervision, giving more freedom to individuals and corporations.

The document offers more comprehensive protection of private property by introducing a volume of law on property.

The main purpose of the property law is to define and specify rights of possession in China. It is a crucial part of civil legislation.

For the first time, private property will receive the same level of protection as State-owned property, said Gu Angran, director of Wang's commission, when he presented the draft to the latest session of the NPC Standing Committee for preliminary reading yesterday.

Legal protection for private property has never before been clearly defined in Chinese law since 1949, although an amendment to the Constitution in 1999 upgrades the private economy from "a complement to the socialist economy" to "an important composing part" of the socialist market economy.

But in the draft code, a whole chapter has been devoted to the protection of private property.

The document also establishes the basic rules of a market economy, said Wang Liming, a civil law professor with the Law School of Renmin University of China.

These rules will make transactions more transparent and the dissemination of information more open, which is crucial to the protection of consumers' rights, he said.

For example, the professor said that for some house buyers it was difficult to find out whether the house they were buying had been mortgaged or not. As a result, some were cheated because they could not access sufficient information.

By introducing a property rights registration system, the draft law gives better protection to both investors and consumers, Wang said.

Only when the right of possession is guaranteed can investors have confidence in making investments, he added.

The draft civil code has also stipulated individuals' and corporations' right to mine, prospect, fish and use water.

Wang Shengming said that the document had made many breakthroughs that improved on current civil legislation, which was based on the 1986 General Principles of Civil Law and other related laws .

Children as young as seven years of age are expected to be able to access their civil rights, which were previously controlled by their guardians.

Current civil legislation says children have little say over their civil rights until they are 10 years old.

Under the draft code, more minors will enjoy greater freedom in everyday life.

The draft has also extended the statute of limitation on actions from two to three years so that people have more chances to make claims.

Wang Shengming said the draft civil code may need five to six years to win final approval.

According to China's Legislative Procedure Law, major laws such as the civil code have to first be considered by the NPC Standing Committee before being put to the vote at the full session of the NPC, which gathers once a year.

Wang expects the legislators to review and pass the code volume by volume.

"In that way, we will focus our research efforts on the law on properties next year,'' he said.

(China Daily December 24, 2002)