A Brief Introduction on Chinese Legislation Procedures (I) I. Legislative Power Chinese National legislative power are vested with the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee. NPC enacts and amends law involving criminal, civil, state apparatus, and other fundamental issues. Other law can be enacted and amended by its Standing Committee. Either NPC or its Standing Committee can authorize the legislative power to the State Council for some subjects on which the conditions for drafting law are not ripe. The duration of such authorization however cannot exceed five years. II. Legislative Procedures (i) Introduction of a Bill A bill can be introduced by the presidium of the NPC or, subject to the review of NPC, by its Standing Committee, the State Council, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, special committees of NPC, delegations of the NPC, and a group of no less than 30 delegates. (ii) Deliberation/Reading Process A bill introduced into the NPC shall be deliberated by all delegations and relevant special committees which shall submit their deliberation opinions to the presidium of the NPC. Such deliberation opinions shall also be distributed to all delegates for their reference when deliberating the bill. After deliberation of special committees and delegations, the bill shall be deliberated by the Legislative Committee under the NPC on the basis of deliberating opinions of both special committees and delegates. The Legislative Committee shall submit to the presidium of the NPC a report dealing with all different opinions and an amended draft law. Such report and amended draft law will be printed and circulated to all delegates for further deliberations. During deliberation, the presidium may call a meeting discussing some special major issues involved in the bill. And delegations may request the bill sponsor to answer questions about the bill. (ii) Voting The Legislative Committee shall, based on all deliberating opinions, present a voting version of the bill (draft law) for final voting. A bill finally becomes a law when it received the affirmative votes of no less than a half of the delegates. III. Judiciary Interpretation of Law Judiciary interpretations, which are formulated by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Procuratorate as explanations of laws which may be to general to implement, also serve as important source of law in China. People who want to practice law in China cannot neglect the judiciary interpretations.