Law refers to a system of behavioral norms enacted or recognized by the state and enforced through state power. It reflects the will of the ruling class determined by specific social and material conditions, structured around rights and obligations, aiming to establish, protect, and develop social relations and order favorable to the ruling class. The concept of law can be understood in both broad and narrow senses. Broadly, it encompasses all normative documents; narrowly, it specifically refers to normative documents formulated by the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee. Regulations denote normative documents issued by state organs, such as administrative regulations enacted by the State Council of China, and local regulations promulgated by provincial-level people's congresses and their standing committees.

   As a crucial component of the legal system, local regulations fundamentally differ from local government rules in two aspects:

• 1. Distinct promulgating authorities;
• 2. Varying authority levels and social effects. Local government rules hold inferior legal validity compared to local regulations, which remain effective within provincial/municipal jurisdictions but are subordinate to the Constitution, national laws, administrative regulations, and provincial-level local regulations.

   CnOpenData's Chinese Legal and Regulatory Database comprehensively covers four modules: national laws, administrative regulations, local regulations, and judicial interpretations. It includes fields such as title(标题), enacting authority(制定机关), legal nature(法律性质), effective date(施行日期), and full text(正文内容). The dataset documents three legal validity statuses: effective, amended, and abolished.

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Temporal Coverage

1950-2024.6 (Specific temporal ranges vary across legal categories; refer to sub-tables for details).

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Data Scale

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Field Specifications

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Sample Data

Laws

Administrative Regulations

Local Regulations

Judicial Interpretations

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Relevant Literature

• Liu Yida, 2023: "The Positioning of Supervisory Regulations in China's Legal System," Administrative Law Review 2.
• Zhao Jianwen, 2010: "The Status of International Treaties in China's Legal System," Chinese Journal of Law 6.

Data Update Frequency

Annual updates