Both in letter and spirit

An independent constitutional review agency or a special panel under NPC can oversee the implementation of the Constitution

The Fourth Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held last week, called for "improving supervision of the National People's Congress over the implementation of the Constitution", which drew widespread attention because of its historic significance.

Although many have hailed it as a breakthrough measure, the plenum only re-emphasized an existing principle. According to China's Constitution, the NPC, China's top legislature, and its Standing Committee are already empowered to supervise the implementation of the Constitution, a task similar to constitutional review in European countries and judicial review in the United States.

But the principle, clearly stated on paper, has yet to be put into practice. The People's Republic of China has thousands of laws and regulations, yet none has been reviewed for its constitutionality, let alone being declared unconstitutional despite law scholars arguing for long that some of them go against the Constitution.

An apt example was the regulation on "re-education through labor", which violated the Constitution because it could deprive a citizen of his/her freedom without facing trial in court. The regulation was abolished only last year.

No wonder, some people say, we have the best Constitution but the only problem is how to implement it.

This distorted phenomenon can be blamed on the absence of an executable constitutional review mechanism. While most modern states have established constitutional courts or empowered normal courts to conduct constitutional review, China follows a unique path by granting that power to the top legislature. This may sound good in theory, but in reality the NPC, which meets for only about two weeks a year, has too many responsibilities to concentrate on constitutional reviews. Its Standing Committee, comprising less than one 10 percent of the total NPC members, too has a full schedule and hardly any time do carry out the important task.