Promoting the Integration of Forging a Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation into Legislation in Ethnic Regions

Forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation is the main theme and main thread of the Party's ethnic work in the New Era. Further strengthening local legislative work in ethnic regions is an inherent requirement of the work of forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation. The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC pointed out the need to advance sound, democratic, and law-based legislation. Since the National People's Congress revised the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China in 2015, ethnic regions have formulated a series of local laws tailored to local realities, following the principle of "no conflict, distinctive features, and operability," providing a legal guarantee for promoting local economic and social development, enhancing ethnic unity, and ensuring that reforms have a legal basis. However, issues of "legislative formalism," such as integrated legislation and repetitive legislation, have constrained the full realization of the functions of local legislation in ethnic regions.

铸牢中华民族共同体意识是新时代党的民族工作的主题主线。进一步强化民族地区地方立法工作，是铸牢中华民族共同体意识工作的题中应有之义。党的二十大报告指出，要推进科学立法、民主立法、依法立法。自2015年全国人大修订《中华人民共和国立法法》以来，民族地区按照“不抵触、有特色、可操作”原则，制定了一系列切合本地实际的地方立法，为促进地方经济社会发展、增强民族团结、确保改革于法有据提供了法治保障。但集成式立法、重复性立法等“立法形式主义”问题制约了民族地区地方立法功能的充分发挥。

On the new journey, against the backdrop where numerous reform and development measures—such as forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation, strengthening grassroots governance, and advancing rural revitalization—all involve legislative work, ethnic regions must take the unity of the national legal system as a principle and the scientific and rational design of relevant systems as a prerequisite, focusing on improving the quality of local legislation.

新征程上，在铸牢中华民族共同体意识、强化基层治理、推进乡村振兴等诸多改革发展举措均涉及立法工作的背景下，民族地区要以国家法制统一为原则，以科学合理设计相关制度为前提，着力提升地方立法质量。

First, strengthen the leadership of the Party. Local legislation in ethnic regions is a task with strong political, professional, and practical dimensions. It is necessary to effectively strengthen the overall leadership of the Party, consciously follow the laws of nature, the economy, social development, ethnic work, and legislative activity, and truly achieve sound legislation. For Party committees in ethnic regions, they must actively fulfill their main responsibilities, place local legislation within the overall work of the locality, and incorporate tasks such as formulating legislative plans, coordinating the relationship between local legislation in ethnic regions and Party and government policies, and ensuring and strengthening legislative functions into the Party committee's agenda, ensuring that successful local experiences are promptly elevated into local legislation, truly achieving a dynamic balance in the local governance structure. It is necessary to effectively strengthen problem awareness, base efforts on the current state of economic and social development in ethnic regions, take solving local practical problems as the focal point, focus on gaps in the local legal system and conflict points prone to contradictions, and actively respond to the basic demands of the people and the objective needs of local governance.

一是强化党的领导。民族地区地方立法是一项政治性、专业性和实践性强的工作，必须切实加强党的全面领导，自觉遵循自然规律、经济规律、社会发展规律、民族工作规律和立法活动规律，真正实现科学立法。对民族地区党委而言，要积极履行主体责任，将地方立法置于本地整体工作中考虑，将编制立法规划、统筹协调民族地区地方立法与党政政策关系、保障和强化立法功能等工作纳入党委议事日程，确保将地方成功经验及时上升为地方立法，真正实现地方治理结构的动态平衡。要切实强化问题意识，立足民族地区经济社会发展现状，以解决地方实际问题为着力点，聚焦地方法制建设的空白点和易于发生矛盾的冲突点，积极回应人民群众的基本诉求和地方治理的客观需求。

Second, strengthen the leading role of the people's congress. It is necessary to prominently highlight the leading role of the people's congress and its standing committee in ethnic regions, and promptly change the government-led legislative work pattern of "whoever is in charge, whoever is responsible, whoever drafts." Local foundational, comprehensive, and overall legislative work should be led by the people's congress, with the leading role reflected in all aspects of legislation, especially in strengthening leadership over the drafting stage. In the work practice of the "dual-director system" [1]1 The "dual-director system" (双组长制) refers to a mechanism in Chinese legislative work where both a Party or government leader and a people's congress leader jointly serve as directors of a legislative leading group, intended to strengthen coordination between Party-government and legislative bodies. of the legislative leading group in ethnic regions, the leading role of the people's congress must be emphasized, and the risk of "legalization of departmental interests" must be controlled within a reasonable range to ensure the authority and impartiality of local legislation in ethnic regions. It is necessary to effectively strengthen the review and guidance functions of the provincial-level people's congress. In the stage where the "annual legislative plan draft" of ethnic regions is submitted for comments, the provincial-level people's congress should clearly propose opinions to withdraw projects that exceed the scope of legislative matters. In the stage where legislation is submitted for approval, the provincial-level people's congress should continuously standardize and improve the principles, standards, and procedures of review and guidance, clearly refuse to approve legislative projects that are repetitive, integrated, or lack scientific soundness, and promptly notify them within specific scopes when appropriate.

二是强化人大主导。要有力突出民族地区人大及其常委会的主导作用，尽快改变“谁主管、谁负责、谁起草”的政府主导立法工作格局。本地基础性、综合性、全局性立法工作要由人大主导，主导作用要体现在立法各环节，特别要强化对起草环节的主导。在民族地区立法领导小组“双组长制”工作实践中突出人大的主导性，务必将“部门利益法制化”风险防控在合理区间，确保民族地区地方立法的权威性和公正性。要切实强化省级人大的审查指导职能，在民族地区“年度立法计划草案”报送征求意见环节，省级人大对草案中超出立法事项范围的项目要明确提出撤销意见。在立法报送批准环节，省级人大要不断规范和完善审查指导的原则、标准和程序，对重复性立法、集成式立法以及科学性不足的立法项目明确不予批准，并适时在特定范围内通报。

Third, strengthen refined legislation. First, legislative topics must be precise. On the basis of thorough research, ethnic regions should accurately predict the operational state of legislative activities within local economic and social relations, and scientifically determine legislative projects that are targeted, necessary, and feasible. Legislative bodies in ethnic regions should actively carry out local legislation in areas such as infrastructure construction, economic development, ecological civilization construction, natural resource development and utilization, ensuring and improving people's livelihoods, education, rural revitalization, and promoting ethnic unity and progress. Taking ecological and environmental protection legislation as an example, the focus of some local legislation in ethnic regions should be on the rural environmental protection field, concentrating on solving prominent issues such as drinking water sources, straw burning, livestock and poultry breeding pollution, and fertilizer and pesticide pollution in rural areas. Second, legislative content must be excellent. Local legislation in ethnic regions must ensure that legislative targets are clear and specific, and that provisions are practical and feasible. It must objectively reflect the actual development situation of ethnic regions, fully embody the substantive demands of people of all ethnic groups, and resolutely handle the relationship between maintaining the unity of the national legal system and highlighting ethnic characteristics. It is necessary to both maintain the unity of the national legal system and safeguard the legitimate partial interests of ethnic regions, so that local legislation in ethnic regions meets the needs of current reform and development. Third, legislative expression must be concise. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that local legislation should have local characteristics, stipulating only as many articles as needed, and if three to five articles can solve the problem, there is no need to create a "grand and lengthy document." The key is to thoroughly understand the spirit of the Party Central Committee, proceed from local realities, and solve prominent problems. Therefore, it is necessary to make good use of limited local legislative resources, strictly follow the objective laws of legislation, firmly grasp the key links and key content of legislation, highlight local characteristics, strive for a concise legislative text structure and concise wording of legislative provisions, and truly play the important role of local legislation, "though the steelyard weight is small, it can weigh a thousand jin." [2]2 "Though the steelyard weight is small, it can weigh a thousand jin" (秤砣虽小压千斤) is a Chinese idiom meaning that something small or seemingly insignificant can play a crucial or decisive role.

三是强化精细立法。其一，立法选题要精准。民族地区要在充分调研的基础上精准预判立法活动在地方经济社会关系中的运行状态，科学确定具有针对性、必要性和可行性的立法项目。民族地区立法机关要积极围绕基础设施建设、经济发展、生态文明建设、自然资源开发利用、保障和改善民生、教育、乡村振兴、促进民族团结进步等领域开展地方立法。以生态环保类立法为例，一些民族地区地方立法的侧重点应是农村环保领域，着重解决农村面临的饮用水水源、秸秆焚烧、畜禽养殖污染以及化肥、农药污染等突出问题。其二，立法内容要精良。民族地区地方立法必须确保立法对象明确具体、条款规定切实可行，必须客观反映民族地区发展实际状况，充分体现各族群众的实质性诉求，坚决处理好维护国家法制统一与突出民族特色的关系。既要维护国家法制统一，又要维护民族地区的局部性正当利益，使民族地区地方立法符合当前改革发展的需要。其三，立法表述要精练。习近平总书记强调，地方立法要有地方特色，需要几条就定几条，能用三五条解决问题就不要搞“鸿篇巨制”，关键是吃透党中央精神，从地方实际出发，解决突出问题。因此，要用好有限的地方立法资源，严格遵循立法客观规律，牢牢抓住立法关键环节和重点内容，突出地方特色，力求立法文本结构简明、立法条款文字精练，真正发挥地方立法“秤砣虽小压千斤”的重要作用。

Fourth, strengthen collaborative legislation. Collaborative legislation is legislation formed by different local legislative bodies, under the premise of maintaining the unity of the national legal system, communicating legislative information on the same or similar legislative matters and cooperating with each other. Collaborative legislation neither changes the geographical scope of local legislation nor expands local legislative authority, but it can negotiate and handle differences in legislative content, thereby providing institutional guarantees for regional governance and coordinated development. Practice in local legislation in ethnic regions shows that the closer the geographical location, the easier it is for local characteristics to compete and converge, and the easier it is for legislative topics to become similar; the more similar the legislative matters, the easier it is for legislative content to be imitated, making legislative repetition naturally difficult to avoid. Under the premise of complying with the social laws of ethnic regions and regional natural laws, it is necessary to coordinate relevant regions to jointly carry out legislative activities on matters such as cross-regional public governance, industrial structure policies, natural resource management, and ecological environmental protection, through various means such as joint legislative meetings. While saving legislative resources and highlighting the ethnic characteristics of each locality, this ensures the unity of collaborative legislation and provides strong institutional support for regional coordinated development. Of course, collaborative legislation can only resolve some of the differences in local legislation between geographically adjacent ethnic regions. The prominent problems caused by current "legislative formalism" must rely more on the transformation and improvement of ethnic regions at multiple levels, including the cognitive value of legislation, legislative conceptual thinking, and especially the outlook on political performance in legislation.

四是强化协同立法。协同立法是在维护国家法制统一的前提下，不同地方立法主体之间就同一或相似立法事项沟通立法信息、通过协同合作形成的立法。协同立法既不改变地方立法的地域范围，也不扩大地方立法权限，又能够协商处理立法内容的差异，从而为区域治理和协调发展提供制度保障。民族地区地方立法实践表明，地理位置越接近，地方特色越容易竞合，立法选题也就越容易趋同；而立法事项越相近，立法内容也越容易被模仿，立法重复自然就难以避免。应在遵从民族地区社会规律和区域自然规律的前提下，围绕跨区域公共治理、产业结构政策、自然资源管理、生态环保等事项，通过立法联席会议等多种方式协调相关地区共同开展立法活动，在节约立法资源、彰显各地民族特色的同时，确保协同立法的统一性，为区域协调发展提供有力的制度支撑。当然，协同立法只能解决部分地理位置相邻民族地区地方立法之间的差异性，对当前“立法形式主义”导致的突出问题，更要依赖民族地区在立法价值认知、立法理念思维特别是立法政绩观等多个层面的转变和提升。

(This article is a phased result of the Gansu Province Social Science Planning Project "Research on Local Legislative Work in Ethnic Regions of Gansu Province" (2023YB016))

（本文系甘肃省社科规划项目“甘肃省民族地区地方立法工作研究”（2023YB016）阶段性成果）

(The author is the Director and Researcher of the Institute of Marxist Studies, Gansu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences)

（作者系甘肃省社会科学院马克思主义研究所所长、研究员）

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