On October 26, 2019, the Cryptography Law of the People's Republic of China passed the 14th Session of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress, effective from January 1, 2020.
With a total of 44 articles in five chapters, the Cryptography Law focuses on the contents as follows: Chapter One is General Provisions, providing for legislative purposes of this Law, basic principles for, leadership over, and administration systems of the cryptographic work, as well as measures for promoting and ensuring the cryptography development; Chapter Two is Core Cryptography and Ordinary Cryptography, stipulating the requirements for the use of core cryptography and ordinary cryptography, the security management rules, and a series of special security systems and measures of the state for strengthening core cryptography and ordinary cryptography work; Chapter Three is Commercial Cryptography, specifying the standardization system, the testing and certification system, the market access administration system, the use requirements, the import and export administration system, the administration system of electronic certification services for e-government, and the interim and ex-post regulatory system for commercial cryptography; Chapter Four is Legal liability, clarifying the corresponding legal consequences incurred from the violation of relevant provisions of this Law; Chapter Five is Supplemental Provisions, stating the power of the state cryptography administrative authority to develop rules, the legislative matters concerning the cryptographic work of the People's Liberation Army and the Armed Police Force, and the effective date of this Law.
According to this Law, the state shall place cryptography under the categorized administration. Cryptography is divided into core cryptography, ordinary cryptography, and commercial cryptography, among which core cryptography and ordinary cryptography are used to secure state secret information and are deemed state secrets, whereas commercial cryptography is used to secure other information. A citizen, legal person, or any other organization may use commercial cryptography to protect cyber and information security according to the law.
2. 全国人大常委会明确国家监委制定监察法规职权
Top Legislature Clarifies NSC’s Power to Formulate Supervision Regulations
On October 26, 2019, the 14th Session of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress passed the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the Development of Supervision Regulations by the National Supervisory Commission, which clearly provides that “the National Supervisory Commission shall develop supervision regulations in accordance with the Constitution and laws.” The Decision should come into force on October 27, 2019.
The Decision specifies the scope of development of supervision regulations by the National Supervisory Commission (NSC), providing that “The following matters may be governed by supervision regulations: (1) matters requiring the development of supervision regulations to implement the provisions of laws; and (2) matters requiring the development of supervision regulations to perform the duties of directing the work of the local supervisory commissions at various local levels.” and “no supervision regulations may contravene the Constitution and laws.”
The Decision also states the procedures for development of supervision regulations, that is, “Supervision regulations shall, upon decision at the plenary session of the National Supervisory Commission, be issued by the National Supervisory Commission in an announcement.”
Meanwhile, the Decision clarifies the supervision of the NPC Standing Committee over supervision regulations, stipulating that “Supervision regulations shall be reported to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for recordation within 30 days of issuance;” and “The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress shall have the power to revoke the supervision regulations which contravene the Constitution and laws.” 3. 六部法律有关规定将在自由贸易试验区暂时调整适用
Application of Relevant Provisions of Six Laws to be Temporarily Adjusted in Pilot Free Trade Zones
On October 26, 2019, the Decision on Authorizing the State Council to Temporarily Adjust the Application of the Provisions of Relevant Laws in Pilot Free Trade Zones passed the 14th Session of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress, which should be implemented on a trial basis during three years from December 1, 2019.
According to the Decision, the State Council is hereby authorized to temporarily adjust the application of relevant provisions prescribed in the Foreign Trade Law, the Road Traffic Safety Law, the Fire Protection Law, the Food Safety Law, the Customs Law, and the Seed Law within pilot free trade zones, and the aforesaid adjustments will be implemented on a trial basis during three years to push forward the reform under classified administration by means of the direct cancellation of approval, substitution of recordation for approval, implementation of notification and undertaking system, and optimization of approval services.
Items of which approval will be directly cancelled include the recordation and registration for foreign trade operators, the accreditation of driving training schools and driving training classes for tractors, and the qualification examination and approval of fire protection technical service institutions. Items of which approval will be suspended and recordation administration will be implemented instead cover the food distribution licensing (for the sale of pre-packaged food only) and registration of customs declaration enterprises. The item under the notification and undertaking system is the fire safety inspection before a public gathering place is put into use or opens for business, under which the party concerned give an undertaking that the fire safety standards have been met, with relevant materials provided, the fire and rescue department should no longer conduct the substantive examination but make an approval decision on the spot. The items on optimizing approval services involve verification and issuance of production and distribution permits of forest and grass seeds (import and export), and cancellation of examination conducted by provincial forestry and grassland departments. 二司法
4. 两高发布办理非法利用信息网络、帮助信息网络犯罪等刑事案件司法解释
SPC and SPP Issue Judicial Interpretation on Handling of Criminal Cases Involving Illegally Using an Information Network or Providing Aid for Criminal Activities in Relation to Information Network
Recently, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) jointly issued the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases Involving the Crime of Illegally Using an Information Network, the Crime of Providing Aid for Criminal Activities in Relation to Information Network, or Other Crime, which provides in a comprehensive and systematic manner for the conviction and sentencing standards for the crime of refusing to perform the information network security management obligation, the crime of illegally using an information network, and the crime of providing aid for criminal activities in relation to information network, and clarifies relevant issues on application of law, effective from November 1, 2019.
The Interpretation mainly clarifies the following: the scope of online service providers, preconditions, and criminalization criteria for the crime of refusing to perform the information network security management obligation; the objective acts of and criminalization criteria for the crime of illegally using an information network; the presumption rules on subjective knowledge and criminalization criteria for the crime of providing aid for criminal activities in relation to information network; the conviction and sentencing standards for the networkcrimes committed by entities; and applicable rules for declaring occupational prohibition, granting an injunction, and imposing fines against relevant network crimes. 5. 最高院发布《关于建立法律适用分歧解决机制的实施办法》
SPC issues Measures for Establishing a Mechanism for Resolving Divergences in Application of Law
On October 28, 2019, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued the Measures for Implementation of Establishing the Mechanism for Resolving Divergences in Application of Law, effective from the date of issuance.
The Measures consist of 12 articles, covering, among others, organization system, application, workflow, and application of a result in the divergence resolution work.
According to the Measures, the Judicial Committee of the SPC is the leading and decision-making body for the divergence resolution in application of law. Where any business division of the SPC, any higher people's court, or any special people's court, in the process of case trial and enforcement, discovers any divergence in the application of law among effective judgments rendered by the SPC, or holds that the result of judgment to be made for its pending case may run counter to the principles or standards for application of law as determined in effective judgments of the SPC, the mechanism for resolving the divergences in application of law should be initiated and an application for resolving the divergences in application of law should be submitted to the SPC. The Trial Administration Office and corresponding business divisions of the SPC as well as the China Institute of Applied Jurisprudence respectively take charge of the relevant work.
After receiving the review opinions from the corresponding business divisions, the Trial Administration Office should timely report to the leaders of the SPC to submit it to the SPC Judicial Committee for deliberation, which is in charge of making the final decision on the divergences in application of law through discussion. 责任编辑：李泽鹏 稿件来源：北大法宝英文编辑组（Mani）审核人员：张文硕 更多精彩，请点击菜单栏“法宝盘点-法宝原创-双语新闻”： ▼往期精彩回顾▼百万法律人都在用的北大法宝详细介绍！ Legislative Updates(10.18-10.24) Legislative Updates(10.11-10.17) 一周立法要闻梳理（10.4-10.10） 一周立法要闻梳理（9.19-9.25） —更多内容—