Launch Legal Education in the Countryside to Advance Law-Based Agriculture

This year's No. 1 Central Document proposed law-based agriculture for the first time, providing a program of action for rural rule-of-law development and pointing the way forward. This is both an inevitable step in promoting the development of our country's “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” cause, and an inherent requirement of comprehensively advancing the rule of law.

Law-based agriculture is full of highlights

The 2015 No. 1 Central Document has two major highlights regarding the strengthening of rural rule-of-law development: first, it proposes that “where practice has proven effective and the conditions for legislation are mature, these should be promptly elevated to law. Laws and regulations that no longer meet the requirements of reform should be promptly amended or repealed.” Second, it clearly states that we must “promptly amend the laws concerning rural land contracting.”

Generally speaking, elevating policy into law can avoid the instability caused by policy changes, and its effects are more lasting; it can also play a driving role in advancing the rule of law.

Compared with the No. 1 Central Documents of previous years, the 2015 No. 1 Central Document is more specific and more operable. For example, Article 28 proposes to “improve the legal system for the protection of rural property rights”; Article 29 proposes to “improve the legal system for the standardized operation of the agricultural market,” mainly to increase the fiscal income of the rural population; Article 30 proposes to “improve the legal system for support and protection of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers",” in order to protect the relevant rights and interests of the rural population. These are all important elements of rural rule-of-law development.

Agriculture plays a foundational role in our country's national economy, and the basic point, the key point and the difficult point of our country's rule-of-law development all involve “agriculture, rural areas and farmers.” The speed of building the rule of law for “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” determines the speed of building a rule-of-law China, and the height of building the rule of law for “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” determines the height of building a rule-of-law China. Therefore, if China is to comprehensively advance the rule of law, it must govern agriculture according to law.

Sending law to the countryside to break the deadlock

The countryside is currently a relatively weak area in our country's rule-of-law development. In some places, problems such as illegal expropriation of farmers' land and illegal seizure of farmers' collective assets occur from time to time; in the process of land transfer, the problem of companies and farming households “tearing up contracts” with each other often arises; and cases of destroying and occupying arable land and damaging natural resources and ecology also frequently appear in the newspapers. “Law does not reach the countryside” has become the deadlock in rural rule of law, restricting the development of our country's “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” cause.

This year's No. 1 Central Document proposes that “we must accelerate the improvement of the legal system for agriculture and rural areas, advance urban and rural rule-of-law development in tandem, and be good at using rule-of-law thinking and rule-of-law methods to do the work of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" well.”

The rule of law is the framework and track for governing the country, and the same is true for the work of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers.” If rural reform has no legal basis, it will not only affect the legality of various measures, but may also harm the interests of hundreds of millions of farmers because of disorder. In reality, whether it is “having one's land expropriated” or “being forced upstairs,” or even “being forced to return to the countryside,” farmers are often on the weaker side whose interests are harmed because their voice is relatively weak. In rural reform, farmers, as the main body of reform, are more vulnerable to being squeezed by capital, the market and power.

Under such circumstances, this year's No. 1 Central Document highlighted the important role of law in improving the protection of rural property rights, improving the standardized operation of the agricultural market, and improving support and protection for “agriculture, rural areas and farmers,” relying on the rule of law to escort farmers' interests and rural development.

⟦NL> Integrating with agriculture and legislating scientifically

At present, there are four major misconceptions in farmers' concept of the rule of law: valuing the rule of man over the rule of law; valuing results over rules; valuing obedience to the law over use of the law; and valuing petitioning over law.

To help farmers move beyond misconceptions about the rule of law and break through the current bottleneck restricting rural rule-of-law development, it is necessary not only to further popularize legal knowledge, but also to strengthen farmers' legal knowledge through democratic practice. At the same time, providing institutional channels and platforms for farmers to use the law is also crucial.

This year's No. 1 Central Document proposes that we must “strengthen the connection between rural reform decision-making and legislation. Carry out in-depth publicity and education on the rule of law in rural areas, enhance the rule-of-law concept of leaders at all levels, agriculture-related departments and rural grassroots cadres, and guide farmers to strengthen their awareness of learning the law, respecting the law, abiding by the law and using the law.”

To strengthen our country's agriculture-related legislation, we must integrate our country's actual national conditions and the characteristics of agriculture itself. This year's No. 1 Central Document proposes that we must “proceed from rural realities, be good at giving play to the positive role of village rules and conventions, and closely combine rule-of-law development with moral development.”

Therefore, legislation in agriculture-related fields must be fully and comprehensively considered and suited to local conditions. On the one hand, we must give consideration to both morality and law, attach importance to the normative role of village rules and conventions, and need not legislate on everything or one-sidedly emphasize uniformity; on the other hand, in agriculture-related fields we cannot completely copy the competition rules of the market economy, and must tailor measures to the situation rather than cut the feet to fit the shoes. Only rigorous scientific legislation can accurately “send law to the countryside.”