Lu Zhengdong put down the phone, the phone call was made by Ma Xinzhong, Ma Xinzhong revealed some information on the phone, the Standing Committee may have to discuss some personnel issues, the organization department of the provincial party committee is conducting active research, including the Xiyuan City Bureau Chief, Donghe City, Tianhua City will have some department-level cadres adjusted, the scope of adjustment is not large.

The preferred candidate for the director of the Xiyuan Municipal Bureau listed by the Organization Department is Du Haitao, secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Xin'an City and director of the Municipal Bureau.

This person started as a rural village party secretary, successively served as a township-level secretary, county magistrate, and secretary of the county party committee, leading by example, adhering to honesty and integrity, and more importantly, he was also very capable, and he did a good job in various positions.

As for the change of career into the public security system is also very accidental, when the state of security in Xin'an deteriorated, and the Xin'an public security team and some illegal and criminal elements are inextricably linked, in urgent need of a principled, capable outsider to lead, Du Haitao in the county party secretary not only did other work well, the county's public security work is also the best in the city, thus entering the field of vision of the municipal party committee, Du Haitao also lived up to expectations, took office for a year to vigorously rectify the public security team, adopted a series of crackdowns on illegal crimes, and achieved good results, This makes Xin'an one of the safest cities in Bay Lake.

Such a candidate is acceptable to both Yao Zhiming and Luo Shanzheng, and Lu Zhengdong also thinks it is more suitable.

However, in this regard, Lu Zhengdong did not have the joy of this as he imagined, first, this is what he expected, for the personnel power controlled by Zhou Shuming, he needs to squeeze toothpaste step by step and fight slowly, and secondly, moving away from Shi Zhongjun is just the beginning, which is conducive to the investigation of Shi Zhongjun. But that's just the beginning. What to do next. It's still hard to think about.

And what made him even more unhappy was the discovery of the problems of the public security system, and he couldn't help but think of the earth-shattering things that appeared in the political and legal system in the next ten years, which made him also think of the urgency of governing the country according to the law.

At present, however, it seems that it has taken a detour, and the current public security system is becoming more and more powerful, and the political and legal system is also becoming more and more powerful, especially the political and legal committee and the secretary concurrently serving as the head of public security are also controversial.

The centralization of power by the Political and Legal Committee has also undergone a process of evolution.

The Political and Legal Committee has existed since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Article 5 of the Organic Law of the Central People's Government stipulates that the Central People's Government Committee shall organize the Administrative Affairs Yuan, the People's Revolutionary Military Commission, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, i.e., the Administrative Yuan, the People's Revolutionary Military Commission, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, which are all branches of the Central People's Government. Under this framework, the Government Affairs Yuan, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly issued the Instructions on the Establishment of Political and Legal Committees by Governments at and above the Provincial Level. This "political and legal committee" is a government agency established under the "Common Program" system, not a party body, and can be regarded as the predecessor of the political and legal committee.

After the 1954 Constitution came into effect, the structure of political power underwent a major change, and it changed from a centralized Central People's Government committee system to a constitutional people's congress system with decentralized powers. Under the system of the people's congress, the Government Council became the State Council. Courts and procuratorates are no longer branches of the Central People's Government, but independent judicial departments. This system of constitutional separation of powers was incompatible with the previous system of political and legal committees with centralized power in the public procuratorate, procuratorate, and law, so the government's political and legal committee system disappeared for a time.

The current system of political and legal committees of party committees originated directly from the "Central Law Commission" in 1956, and the tasks of the CPC Central Law Commission stipulated were the tasks assigned by the CPC Central Committee, mainly on issues such as legal work guidelines and policies and the division of labor among various departments, and were not in charge of specific cases of relevant departments. At that time, all departments of the public security, procuratorate, and law departments set up party groups, and the party groups of the relevant organs were directly responsible to the central authorities, asking the central authorities for instructions and reporting on their work, but not to the Central Legal Commission of the Communist Party of China, which showed that it was only a secretarial organ and was only set up at the central level, and there was no contradiction between the Central Legal Commission of the Communist Party of China and a country ruled by law. The transformation of the centralized political and legal committee of the government under the "Common Program" system to the Central Law Commission of the Communist Party of China shows a tendency towards the rule of law, at least at the local level, where the courts and procuratorates are independent judicial organs.

However, two years later, things changed substantially, and the Central Political and Legal Affairs Group, which was established in the Great Leap Forward, became an organ that concentrated decision-making power (legislative policy) and executive (judicial) power, which was an unfettered organization that was higher than the public procuratorate and law established by the Constitution.

From then on, party committees at and above the county level set up political and legal groups, which not only "coordinated" the relationship between the public procuratorate and the law, but also gradually formed the habit of having heavy cases examined and approved by the party committees.

In 1960, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security were co-located under the unified leadership of the Ministry of Public Security, and these two measures undoubtedly had a causal relationship with the 10-year turmoil. After several years of existence in name only, the Central Political and Legal Group has lost its form.

After smashing the Gang of Four, the Central Committee approved the establishment of a central political and legal group to assist the central authorities in handling some policy and policy issues in the four departments of the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. However, it is clearly stipulated in the document that the main task of the newly established political and legal group is to "study important issues with principles and policies in the work", and its relationship with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs has changed from "leadership" to "assistance". Give full play to the role of judicial organs, and truly ensure that the people's procuratorates independently exercise procuratorial power, and the people's courts independently exercise adjudication power,...... Party committees and judicial organs have their own special responsibilities and cannot replace each other, and should not be confused with each other. For this. The Central Committee has decided to abolish the system of examination and approval of cases by party committees at all levels. …… The Party's leadership over judicial work. It is mainly the leadership of principles and policies.

Party committees at all levels must resolutely change the past practice of substituting the party for government and words for law. The habit and practice of not acting in accordance with the law and taking over judicial and administrative affairs is a return to the 1956 system, not to the system of '58 that led to the absence of a separation between the party and the government. This reflects the beginning of the search for the rule of law since the beginning of reform and opening up.

However, it did not take long for political and legal committees to be established in various localities, and the leading bodies and institutions of political and legal committees were generally established. Although it is not clear that the political and legal committee of the party committee is the functional department of the party committee and leads the political and legal work, it has actually brought into play the role of the functional department of the party committee and has organized and led the work of the political and legal departments in a unified manner at the macro level.

This is clearly not in line with the thinking of the general designer. Therefore, at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, when the separation of the party and the government was regarded as the primary goal and breakthrough point of the reform of the political system, the report pointed out that the long-standing problem of not separating the party from the government and replacing the government with the party has not been fundamentally resolved. If this problem is not resolved, the party's leadership cannot be truly strengthened, and other reform measures will not be implemented smoothly. Therefore, the key to the reform of the political system is, first of all, the separation of the party and the government. The separation of the party and the government means the separation of the functions of the party and the government.

[16] As an important step in implementing the report of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee decided to establish the Central Political and Legal Committee and established the Central Political and Legal Leading Group. The functions of the political and legal group are greatly weakened compared with those of the political and legal committee, and it generally does not hold political and legal work meetings and does not issue documents. It embodies the spirit of doing things according to law and separating the party from the government. This is an important step for the country to move toward the rule of law. However, most of the political and legal committees of party committees below the provincial level have not had time to abolish them.

That's what happened as everyone knows. However, at that time, the Central Committee still adhered to the principle of separating the party from the government, and demanded that after the political and legal committee was restored, it would still implement the principle of separating the functions of the party and the government. In the following years, the political and legal committees expanded their powers several times, and at the same time, the establishment of political and legal committees at all levels also continued to expand, and their powers were constantly strengthened.

Correspondingly, in practice, the interference of political and legal committees, especially at the grassroots level, in the administration of justice has become increasingly severe. Since the activities of the Political and Legal Committee lack a legal and procedural basis, and its activities are mainly decided by the secretary, it is particularly noteworthy who will hold the position of the first leader. In practice, the secretary of the political and legal committee is usually the director of the public security bureau, and under this system, in fact, the courts and procuratorates have become subordinate organs of the public security, which is a return to the "three-in-one" system of public security, procuratorate, and law stipulated in 1961, resulting in de facto public security leading the courts and procuratorates.

The existence of the political and legal committee has played a specific role in a specific period, but the negative impact of repeatedly strengthening the power of the political and legal committee and the authority of public security should not be underestimated, especially from a long-term perspective.

The purpose of repeatedly strengthening the power of the political and legal committee is to maintain stability, and in fact strengthening the power of the political and legal committee is actually undermining stability and strengthening the power of the political and legal committee, which involves the relationship between the court and the local party committee, especially the secretary and the secretary of the political and legal committee, for example, the person in charge of the party committee, especially the secretary of the political and legal committee of the party committee. This is because the leaders of party committees in many localities often let the courts put aside the relevant provisions of the law when they feel that the provisions of the law do not conform to their wishes, and they can meddle in the handling of individual cases, make decisions before trials, and let the court hear cases as if they were going through the motions.

In a situation where the secretary of the political and legal committee and the head of public security have their two positions combined, the handling of important criminal cases is often the result of the trial by the police-led court. In some localities, if the secretaries of local party committees particularly lack a sense of the rule of law, they can even put on an umbrella and be lawless, allowing the courts to handle cases almost completely in accordance with their will or instructions, and local interference in judicial cases is almost never discussed and decided by the party committee or standing committee, and almost all decisions are made by the responsible persons themselves or their subordinate political and legal committees. Behind some serious unjust cases is often coordinated and discussed in this way, and the RTL system is being implemented more and more broadly and arbitrarily, causing extremely negative effects.

The adjudication level is independent but not independent, that is, the higher court shall not influence the judgment of the lower court. As a matter of fact, the provisions of our Constitution are relatively close to those of other countries governed by the rule of law in this respect. In accordance with our Constitution. The relationship between the lower and lower courts is one of supervision and supervision. It is not a relationship between the leader and the led. A higher court shall not interfere with the lower court's adjudication of a case in accordance with the provisions of the law. However, it is a pity that this point has not been carried out basically, and in practice, the relationship between supervision and supervision between the judicial organs at the upper and lower levels of the state has gradually been distorted into a relationship between the leadership and the led by the state administrative organs, with the result that the independence of the local courts at all levels has been almost degraded. As a result, the Supreme Court and the High Court often issue documents and directives, or the leaders of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the president of the court come forward to make speeches and make various demands to the courts and judges at all levels. One of the consequences of this is that the courts at all levels have largely ceased to exercise judicial power independently in accordance with the provisions of the law, but have exercised judicial power in accordance with internal texts, instructions, directives, speeches of leaders, and even implicit.

As for the relationship between the courts and other state organs, the Constitution allows the courts to exercise judicial power independently in accordance with the law. It is not subject to interference by administrative organs, but in fact the administrative organs are in charge of the personnel establishment of the courts and the preparation of their financial budgets, which in fact provides an objective condition for the administrative organs to interfere in the administration of justice.

This also gives a lot of room for talking about favors, relationships, and power rent-seeking, and even in some places, the success or failure of a case is not determined by whether you occupy the legal principle, but whether you can't find a relationship, or whether the relationship is hard enough, and the judicial corruption of the case.

Another consequence of this is a sharp decline in the authority and credibility of the judiciary, especially in the economy and society. The number of cases involved in litigation has increased sharply year by year, and the parties involved in unjust, false and wrongly decided cases have to petition. Even if the verdict is based on the facts, even if it is not a wrongful conviction, the parties who suspect that they have been wronged will petition because they lack basic trust in the verdict.

In the future, stability maintenance work has become the key work in many places, down to villages and towns, neighborhood committees, neighborhood offices, and counties and cities, all of which spend a lot of manpower and financial resources to solve the problem of petitioning, in fact, it is only to temporarily stop people, these personnel do not have the authority to solve the problem, it is naturally difficult to really solve the problem, in fact, it is difficult to receive obvious results. Because of the high-pressure policies of the superiors, they even adopted radical measures such as being mentally ill, re-education through labor at will, and beatings, which caused an uproar in public opinion.

What is even stricter is that after compressing to a certain period of time, it will rebound strongly, so that governments at all levels are tired of coping, not to mention, and there will be many problems, which cannot cure the symptoms, let alone the root cause, the previous things have not been solved, and the back continues to happen, such a situation hides a threat to social stability. There is no neutral and authoritative arbitration institution in society, and if there is no credible and authoritative judiciary to adjudicate between the two or all parties to the conflict, it will be difficult for all kinds of disputes to be finally resolved, and it is a very dangerous thing to accumulate in this way.

As a leading cadre, especially a senior leading cadre, we should not follow the crowd on some important issues, but should have our own independent judgment and think deeply about certain things based on long-term development and the overall situation, and think as far as possible in the long term and think more thoroughly.

In Lu Zhengdong's view, although strengthening the power of the political and legal committee can have a certain effect in the short term, in the long run, there is a feeling of drinking water to quench thirst.

It is still necessary to unswervingly follow the path of governing the country according to law, and it is necessary to respect the most fundamental Da Law -- the Constitution -- under the leadership of the party.

The political and legal committees, which are becoming more and more powerful, are in a very awkward position on this point, and the political and legal committees in reality are obviously contrary to the constitutional rule of not interfering in trials.

In fact, this is also a question of how to understand the party's understanding, which has already led the NPC and its Standing Committee to write down all its important propositions into the constitution and laws, thus realizing its political leadership in the field of legal life. Therefore, the strict application of the law by the courts is to implement the party's leadership. In addition, the members of the courts at all levels are recommended by the ruling party to the relevant people's congress elections or recommended to the standing committee of the people's congress for appointment in accordance with the path prescribed by the constitution, which realizes the party's organizational leadership over the judiciary, and these leadership methods of the party have become a political system, and then a strong political and legal committee is added to it, which seems to strengthen the party's leadership, but in fact, with the continuous expansion of the power of the political and legal committee, especially when it actually becomes a government above the government and a court above the court. Under the banner of maintaining stability, all localities have buried the hidden danger of greater social stability, but in fact, sometimes the effect is reversed.

In Lu Zhengdong's view, a lot of reforms have been implemented in the judiciary in recent years, and there has been great progress, but with the development of the times, this is not enough, and the reduction of power by the political and legal committee is an inevitable choice for judicial reform and judicial establishment of prestige and credibility, and it is also the biggest and easiest breakthrough, and then we can talk about the reform of the judicial system, of course, this also needs to have a process of understanding, and it takes an opportunity, which will take seven or eight to ten years.

Before such an opportunity comes, as an expert and scholar, these can be said, and as a government official or a senior leader to talk about this matter is not appropriate, if it is not good, some people will be put on a big hat of "denying the leadership of the party", but even this is not that it cannot make a difference, such things are only suitable to do, and can not be said, for example, in the administration according to law, he can also introduce some measures, such as he can also talk to Qiu Zhonghao, secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, so that he can reduce the interference in the trial of the case as much as possible, Of course, we cannot detach ourselves from the current environment and actual situation, and let Qiu Zhonghao show the leadership of the political and legal committee from the perspective of team building, system building, strict law enforcement discipline, and personnel adjustment...... (To be continued......)