Academics are sharply divided on the Standing Committee's power to interpret laws on the mainland, a Beijing legal scholar told a conference yesterday.
Cai Dingjian, a law professor at the China University of Politics and Law, said the Standing Committee had used restraint in exercising its interpretation powers.
Generally it only used such power when there were disputes among different government organs on how the law was being applied.
Appearing at the 'Legal Perspectives of Constitutional Review' conference at the University of Hong Kong, Professor Cai said some people on the mainland had criticised the committee for not actively interpreting laws.
But other academics had argued that it was inappropriate for the Standing Committee to both enact the law and then interpret it. It should be left to the courts to give such interpretations, they said.
The symposium, which is sponsored by the South China Morning Post, is the first in a series, 'Constitutional Review and Democratic Development: The Way Forward'.
