The process of the legislation of New China was in accordance with the birth of the People’s Republic. The 1st Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held in September 1949, on the eve of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, occupied an extremely important position in China’s contemporary legislative history. It passed the Law of the Organization of the Central People’s Government, which served as the legal foundation of the existence of the new state administration, and the Common Program, which functioned as the temporary constitution. The Common Program declares that all laws and decrees oppressing the people should be abolished and laws and decrees for the protection of the people should be worked out. From the angle of legislation, the most brilliant achievement of this conference was that it announced the births of both the People’s Republic and the new legislation.

Two major events took place during this period of the legislative history of the People’s Republic: one was that the 1st Session of the 1st National People’s Congress was formally held; the other was that the first socialist-type constitution in China’s legislative history was born. At the 1st Session of the 1st National People’s Congress held in 1954, the Constitution and a series of laws, including the Law of the Organization of the National People’s Congress, Law of the Organization of the State Council, Law of the Organization of Local Governments, Law of Organization of the Court and Law of Organization of the Procuratorate, were passed.

During this period, China’s legislation went through a change from a considerable degree of power sharing between central government and localities to a high-degree of centralization. For the localities, it was a process of ups and downs with numerous establishments and abolitions. Before the opening of the 1st National People’s Congress, the legislation structure in China allowed the central government to divide a considerable part of the legislative power to localities. At the central level, although the CPPCC had played the role of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in legislation and worked out the Law of the Organization of the Central People’s Government, it made no more laws after its first session in 1949. The Central People’s Government had the right to make laws and promulgate decrees both in law and in practice. The regulatory documents promulgated by the State Council were actually taken as laws; and, in fact, it approved many local laws and regulatory documents. In localities, the big administrative areas, provinces, cities and counties were all permitted to make decrees and specific regulations. Meanwhile, from the level of ethnic autonomous administrative townships upwards, ethnic autonomous governments and organs at each level all had the power to make regulations.

In 1954, after the nationwide-elected National People’s Congress was held, China’s legislation dramatically changed to a highly centralized structure. The National People’s Congress was the only organ to conduct state legislation, and which had the power to amend the Constitution and make laws; the Standing Committee of the NPC had power to interpret laws and work out regulations; the chairman of the state (later to be called the president) promulgated laws and regulations; the State Council’s administrative measures, decisions and decrees were considered as state laws and regulations, and were compiled into the Collection of Laws and Regulations of the People’s Republic of China. In local administration, except for ethnic autonomous localities that had the right to make their autonomous regulations and specific regulations, others were all deprived from the right to make laws, regulations or specific regulations.