Order of the President of the People's Republic of China

No. 28

The Procurators Law of the People's Republic of China, adopted at the Second 19th Meeting of the Thirteenth National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on April 23, 2019, is hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of October 1, 2019.  

Xi Jinping 

President of the People's Republic of China

April 23, 2019 

Procurators Law of the People's Republic of China

(Adopted at the 12th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on February 28, 1995, amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Procurators Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 22nd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on June 30, 2001, amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Amending Eight Laws Including the Judges Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 29th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on September 1, 2017, and revised at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on April 23, 2019)

Contents

Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Duties, Obligations, and Rights

Chapter III Qualifications and Selection

Chapter IV Appointment and Removal

Chapter V Management

Chapter VI Appraisal, Awards, and Disciplinary Actions

Chapter VII Professional Guarantee

Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I

General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution to advance the cultivation of high-caliber procurators, strengthen the management and supervision over them, safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, ensure that people's procuratorates independently exercise their procuratorial power in accordance with the law and that procurators legally perform their functions and duties, and safeguard justice. 

Article 2 Procurators refer to the procuratorial personnel who exercise State procuratorial power in accordance with the law, including the Procurator-General, the Deputy Procurator-General, and the chief procurators, deputy chief procurators, procuratorial committee members, and procurators of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the local people's procuratorates at all levels and specialized people's procuratorates such as military procuratorates.

Article 3 Procurators shall observe the Constitution and laws, safeguard social fairness and justice and be devoted to serving  the people.

Article 4 Procurators shall stay diligent, honest, and clean, and live by professional ethics. 

Article 5 Procurators shall perform their duties objectively and impartially on the basis of facts and law.

In handling criminal cases, procurators shall abide by the principle of nullum crimen sine lege, and respect and protect human rights, ensuring that crimes are prosecuted while protecting the non-guilty from criminal prosecution.

Article 6 Procurators shall be protected by law, and brook no interference from administrative bodies, social groups or individuals when performing their duties in accordance with the law. 

Chapter II

Duties, Obligations, and Rights 

Article 7 Procurators have the following duties: 

(1) To investigate criminal cases directly accepted by people's procuratorates as provided by law;

(2) To review the requests for detentions and prosecutions involved in criminal cases, and bring public prosecution of these cases on behalf of the State; 

(3) To initiate public interest litigation; 

(4) To oversee criminal, civil, and administrative litigation; and 

(5) Other duties provided by law. 

Procurators shall be responsible for the decisions they make on the cases within the scope of their functions and powers. 

Article 8 Chief procurators, deputy chief procurators and procuratorial committee members of people's procuratorates shall, in addition to performing their procuratorial duties, undertake other duties commensurate with their posts. 

Article 9 Procurators shall work under the leadership of their chief procurator and refer major cases to the chief procurator for decision. The chief procurator can entrust part of his powers to procurators, and may authorize them to issue legal documents. 

Article 10 Procurators shall discharge the following obligations:  

(1) To strictly observe the Constitution and laws;

(2) To handle cases impartially and not to bend the law for personal gains;

(3) To safeguard the procedural rights of the parties involved and other participants in the proceedings in accordance with the law;

(4) To safeguard the interests of the State and the public and the lawful rights and interests of individuals and organizations; 

(5) To protect State and procuratorial secrets as well as the trade secrets and individual privacy learned of in the performance of duties; 

(6) To accept legal and public oversight in accordance with the law; 

(7) To raise public awareness of the rule of law and promote rule-of-law society by handling cases in accordance with the law and interpreting the laws involved in cases; and

(8) To discharge other obligations provided by law. 

Article 11 Procurators shall enjoy the following rights:  

(1) To have the power and working conditions essential to the performance of their duties; 

(2) Not to be transferred, removed, demoted, dismissed, or sanctioned without legally recognized causes or without going through statutory procedures;

(3) To enjoy professional guarantee, welfare and benefits from the performance of duties; 

(4) To enjoy personal safety and safety of the property and residence as ensured by law; 

(5) To lodge petitions or complaints; and

(6) Other rights provided by law. 

Chapter III 

Qualifications and Selection

Article 12 Procurators must meet the following requirements:  

(1) Having the nationality of the People's Republic of China; 

(2) Upholding the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the socialist system; 

(3) Having political integrity, professional competence, and decent ethics; 

(4) Being physically fit to perform their duties; 

(5) Having an undergraduate diploma in law and a Bachelor of Laws or a higher degree in law from a college or university; having an undergraduate diploma or above in non-law specialties from a college or university as well as having received master's degree in law or jurisprudence or above; or having an undergraduate diploma or above in non-law specialties from a college or university as well as having an relevant degree and professional knowledge of law;

(6) Having engaged in legal work for five years. Of these, the number of years engaged in legal work may be shortened to four or three years respectively for those who have obtained a masters in law or jurisprudence, or obtained an LL.D; and

(7) Procurators serving their first post shall have passed the national uniform legal professional qualification examination and obtained the legal professional credential.

In areas where there are real difficulties for the academic requirements specified in Subparagraph (5) of the preceding Paragraph to be met, upon review and confirmation by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the academic requirements for procurators may be relaxed for a period of time to include bachelor's degrees from universities.

Article 13 The following persons shall not serve as procurators: 

(1) Those who have been subjected to criminal punishment for committing a crime; 

(2) Those who have been discharged from public office; 

(3) Those whose certificates for practice as a lawyer or notary public have been revoked, or have been removed from an arbitration commission; and 

(4) Those with other circumstances provided for by law.

Article 14 New procurators are selected by means of both tests and evaluations and in accordance with the criteria of both ability and integrity, and from those with the qualifications for becoming procurators. 

Chief procurators of people's procuratorates shall possess legal knowledge and legal practice experience. Deputy chief procurators and procuratorial committee members shall be selected from among procurators, judges, or others with qualifications to be procurators.  

Article 15 As necessary for procuratorial work, people's procuratorates may openly select procurators from legal professionals, such as lawyers, educators and researchers of law.

In addition to having the qualifications for serving as procurators, lawyers participating in the aforementioned open selection shall have at least five years in actual practice, have rich practice experience and have a good reputation; educators and researchers of law participating in the open selection shall have an intermediate-level professional title or higher and have been engaged in teaching or research for at least five years, with outstanding capacity for research and corresponding research accomplishments.

Article 16 Provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government shall establish procurator selection committees, responsible for reviewing the professional competence of new procurator candidates.

Members of a provincial-level procurator selection committee shall include procurators of each level of local people's procuratorates, other members of the legal profession, and representatives of relevant parties, of whom not less than one third shall be procurators. 

The routine work of a provincial-level procurator selection committee shall be undertaken by an office established within the provincial-level people's procuratorate.

A Supreme People's Procuratorate Procurator Selection Committee shall be established for the selection of Supreme People's Procuratorate procurators, responsible for reviewing the professional competence of the procurator candidates. 

Article 17 New procurators shall generally serve in the primary-level people's procuratorates. Procurators of a people's procuratorate at a higher level shall generally be selected from the people's procuratorates at the next lower level; procurators of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and provincial-level people's procuratorates may be selected from the people's procuratorates at the next two levels. Procurators participating in the procurator selection of higher-level people's procuratorates shall have served a number of years in the lower-level people's procuratorate, and have work experience corresponding to the new post.

Chapter IV

Appointment and Removal 

Article 18 The appointment and removal of procurators shall be handled in accordance with the scope of appointment and removal authority and procedures provided for by the Constitution and laws.

The Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate shall be elected or removed by the National People's Congress; its deputy chief procurators, procuratorial committee members, and procurators shall be appointed or removed by request of the Procurator-General to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

The chief procurator of each level of local people's procuratorates shall be elected or removed by the people's congress at that level, and their deputy chief procurators, procuratorial committee members, and procurators shall be appointed or removed by request of the chief procurators to the standing committee of the people's congress at that level.

The appointment and removal of the chief procurators of each level of local people's procuratorates shall be reported to the chief procurator of the people's procuratorate at the next higher level, who shall submit the matter to the standing committee of the people's congress at that next higher level for approval.

The chief procurators, deputy chief procurators, and procuratorial committee members, and procurators of the branches of the people's procuratorates of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government shall be appointed or removed by request of the procurator of the people's procuratorate of the province, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the central government to the standing committee of that level of people's congress.

The chief procurators, deputy chief procurators, and procuratorial committee members, and procurators of the dispatched offices establishes in accordance with law by the provincial-level people's procuratorates and by the people's procuratorates of cities divided into districts shall be appointed or removed by, upon request of the chief procurator of the establishing people's procuratorate, the standing committee of the people's congress at that level.

The chief procurators, deputy chief procurators, and procuratorial committee members, and procurators of the people's procuratorates of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and specialized people's procuratorates at all levels shall be appointed and removed in accordance with relevant provisions of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Article 19 After procurators are selected in accordance with the statutory procedure, they shall take a constitutional oath publicly when taking office. 

Article 20 Where a procurator has any of the following circumstances, a proposal shall be made to request his removal from the procuratorial post in accordance with the law: 

(1) Where he has forfeited the nationality of the People's Republic of China;

(2) Where he has been transferred out of the people's procuratorate where he held a position;

(3) Where changes in his position does not require him to retain the position of procurator, or he personally requests to be removed from a position as procurator and it is approved;

(4) Where he is evaluated as incompetent as a procurator;

(5) Where he cannot perform his duties for a long time due to illness;

(6) Where he retires;

(7) Where he resigns or should be discharged in accordance with the law; or

(8) Where he is unsuited to hold office due to violation of disciplines or laws. 

Article 21 Where an elected chief procurator of a people's procuratorate does not possess the qualifications provided for by this Law, or he is elected in violation of the statutory procedure, the chief procurator of the people's procuratorate at the next higher level shall have the right to request the standing committee of the people's congress at that level for disapproval. 

Article 22 Where a procurator is found to have been appointed in violation of the conditions provided for by this Law, the organ that appointed him shall revoke the appointment. Where the people's procuratorate at a higher level finds that the appointment of a procurator of the people's procuratorate at a lower level violates the conditions provided for by this Law, it shall require the people's procuratorate at the lower level to submit a request to the appointing organ for revoking the appointment in accordance with the law.

Article 23 Procurators shall not concurrently serve as members of the standing committees of people's congresses, hold posts in administrative, supervisory or adjudicative organs, enterprises, or other for-profit organizations or public institutions, or serve as lawyers, arbitrators, or notaries public.