Economic construction is the center of socialist modernization. The role of socialist law in this respect is first reflected in maintaining the basic socialist economic system, namely socialist public ownership, planned commodity economy, distribution according to work and so on. In addition, socialist law also plays an important role in maintaining and promoting economic system reform.
The reform of China's economic system is to reform the links and aspects of production relations and superstructure that are not suitable for the development of productive forces on the premise of adhering to the socialist system. It was carried out in a planned, step-by-step and orderly manner under the leadership of the party and the government. Therefore, from the essence and overall view of China law, it should and in fact actively protect and promote economic system reform. Of course, for different reform targets and different development stages of reform, the form and degree of legal promotion are different. Generally speaking, when a major reform is still in the stage of accumulating experience, the role of law is not as significant as its role in the stage of universal promotion. In the later period, in order to make this reform institutionalized and standardized, the role of law will be highlighted. In other words, there is a transition from policy guidance to making laws. But what is certain is that with the development of national economy and the reform of economic system, more and more norms of economic relations and activities need to be fixed in the form of law.
The role of law in promoting economic system reform is also reflected in punishing all kinds of activities that undermine reform, including committing crimes in the name of reform. There have been many reports in the newspaper recently.
When talking about the role of China's socialist law in promoting socialist economic construction, especially economic system reform, we should also pay special attention to the combination of economic, administrative and legal means in economic management. For a long time, one of the major drawbacks of China's economic system is that the responsibilities of government and enterprises are not divided, and enterprises have actually become the appendages of administrative institutions, managing the economy purely by administrative means. An important aspect of the ongoing economic system reform is to change the original state, separate government from enterprises, and make enterprises truly become relatively independent economic entities; When managing the economy, we should use economic, administrative and legal means comprehensively.
2. Maintain and promote the construction of socialist spiritual civilization.
Socialist law is closely related to the construction of spiritual civilization. To sum up, socialist law is the product of spiritual civilization, and the two develop in parallel and promote each other. The development of spiritual civilization construction has created favorable conditions for the construction of legal system, which has provided a strong guarantee for the construction of spiritual civilization. Practice of socialist legal system (legislation, judicature, law enforcement, law-abiding, etc.). ) is also an important symbol to measure China's spiritual civilization.
The concept of legal system is an important part of the ideological and moral part of spiritual civilization. Therefore, legal publicity and education is not only an important measure to strengthen the legal system construction, but also an important task for the construction of socialist spiritual civilization. When talking about the content of ideological construction in the construction of spiritual civilization, the Twelfth National Congress of the Communist Party of China held that the most important things are ideals, morality and discipline. The discipline mentioned here certainly includes law or discipline, and it also talks about strengthening the compulsory education of the constitution and civil rights for the broad masses of the people, especially cadres and teenagers.
All laws in China's socialist society have promoted the construction of spiritual civilization. Of course, the expression of this role is different. For example, some specific provisions on cultural and ideological construction in the Constitution or some specific laws and regulations on cultural education reflect the direct promotion of the law to the construction of spiritual civilization, while other laws reflect the indirect but equally important role. For example, the provisions of criminal law on punishing crimes directly aim at protecting personal safety and social order, but such safety and order are the minimum conditions for spiritual civilization construction.
The content of spiritual civilization is very extensive. Let's talk about the promotion of socialist laws to the moral level of socialist society. In order to eliminate the influence of all the old decadent feudal bourgeois morality on the people, especially the teenagers, and instill in them the moral requirements of socialism and productism, we must rely on various organizations and through various forms and means, one of which is law. It will clearly educate the people, what the state protects and opposes, and will promptly warn the unstable elements in society: what consequences will be caused by evil, and so on. Therefore, law enforcement and judicial workers should fully realize the important role of socialist law in improving people's moral level. Public hearings or announced judgments held by people's courts can often become a forum or teaching material for educating citizens about law, discipline and morality.
Of course, socialist law is not indistinguishable from socialism and socialist morality. A simple fact: in our country, industries that violate the law are generally acts that violate the minimum moral requirements, especially criminal acts, which are even more serious illegal acts, but on the other hand, it cannot be said that any acts that violate morality are also acts that violate the law, especially criminal acts. There are two forms to confuse the boundary between law and morality. One form is to mistake illegal or even criminal acts for just violating morality, thus giving up due legal sanctions; The other is to mistakenly expand what is just a violation of morality into illegal or even criminal acts, and thus be punished or even sentenced by law. These two kinds of chaos are the destruction of the socialist legal system in practice.
3. Maintain and develop socialist democracy.
The role of socialist law in this respect is first manifested in confirming and maintaining our national system, that is, the people's democratic dictatorship. It should protect people's democracy or socialist democracy, exercise dictatorship over hostile elements, and promote the settlement of contradictions among the people and between ourselves and the enemy.
The relationship between socialist law and democracy is usually called the relationship between democracy and legal system in China's political life. They are also combined and interacted with each other. Without democracy and the rule of law, the rule of law has no foundation and may become a defense of autocracy; On the contrary, without the rule of law, democracy will not be guaranteed and may become anarchy. The historical lessons of ten years of turmoil fully tell us that one of the important conditions for the "Cultural Revolution" was that after the founding of New China, we did not attach importance to socialist democracy and legal system construction. Therefore, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party made a major decision to strengthen socialist democracy and legal system. "In order to protect people's democracy, we must strengthen the socialist legal system, institutionalize and legalize democracy, and make this system and law stable, continuous and authoritative, so that there are laws to follow, laws to be observed, law enforcement to be strict, and violators to be prosecuted." This is indeed a leap forward in the Party's understanding of this issue, as some people have said. In order to maintain the long-term stability of the country and prevent the recurrence of similar "Cultural Revolution" phenomena, we must strengthen the construction of socialist democracy and legal system, institutionalize and legalize democracy, and make this system and law not change because of the changes in leaders' views and attention.
The promotion of socialist laws to democratic construction is also reflected in the dictatorship of the enemy and the crackdown on serious criminals in the economic field and other fields. China's Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, relevant decisions of the NPC Standing Committee and other relevant separate laws and regulations have played an obvious role in this respect.
The role of socialist laws in promoting democratic construction is also reflected in many other aspects, such as consolidating national defense and ensuring national defense modernization; Maintain and develop socialist ethnic relations and ensure the realization of regional ethnic autonomy; Promote the reform of state organs, oppose bureaucracy in the work of state organs, and improve work efficiency; Socialist law plays an important role in maintaining social order, solving civil disputes, preventing and punishing illegal and criminal acts.
4. The role of maintaining and promoting foreign exchanges
The role of socialist law in this respect is first embodied in: ensuring the implementation of an independent foreign policy. This role is reflected in the general principles of China's foreign policy stipulated in the Constitution, international treaties concluded and acceded to by China, and relevant laws and regulations. Secondly, it is reflected in the role of ensuring foreign economic, technological and cultural exchanges. In recent years, China has enacted many laws that directly promote foreign economic, technological and cultural exchanges, including the Law on Sino-foreign Joint Ventures, the Law on Foreign Economic Contracts, the Patent Law and the Trademark Law. Finally, its role in other foreign-related relations. For example, the Constitution contains provisions on safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of China citizens living in foreign countries and foreigners living in China. Provisions in the Nationality Law on determining nationality and dual nationality; Provisions on foreign-related civil procedure in the Civil Procedure Law; The provisions on foreign-related inheritance in the inheritance law all reflect the important role of law in safeguarding and promoting foreign exchanges.