Chinese Law Prof Blog

First Beijing case on access to government information

The New Beijing News (新京报) yesterday carried a report on what purports to be the first case heard by Beijing courts on access to government information under the Regulations on Open Government Information (政府信息公开条例), which came into effect on May 1.

The facts of the case are quite interesting and involve all kinds of historical complications. The plaintiff's father owned quite a bit of housing stock in various parts of Beijing prior to 1949. In 1951, the (Beijing?) Real Estate Administration Bureau (房屋管理局) confirmed his ownership. (Urban land was not officially uniformly nationalized until the 1982 constitution declared all urban land to be state-owned.) Later, for "historical reasons" (usually a code word for things that happened during the Cultural Revolution), the housing "underwent changes" such that the plaintiff's family could no longer occupy and use the housing. In May, the plaintiff apparently decided to try to trace what had happened with a view to asserting her rights over the property. She went to the Dongcheng District Real Estate Administration Bureau to present an official request under the Regulations to see ownership records for the properties. A week later, the Bureau officially refused her request.

The Bureau's Notice of Refusal did not specify a particular reason for refusing, stating instead that the reason was "other circumstances under laws, regulations, or relevant rules in which information is not made public" (this language appears in quotation marks in the news report, but the Notice of Refusal does not appear to be quoting any passage from the Regulations). Needless to say, this wasn't very helpful to the plaintiff. Upon further inquiry, she was told that the housing in question had become "managed rental property" (经租房). This refers to housing stock that around 1958 was essentially taken over by the municipal government and rented out by it to tenants, possibly with some symbolic payment to owners and without any formal expropriation proceedings. (This was 1958, remember; it was consistent with the spirit of the times to say that landlords could own real property but that all rentals should be under unified state control, just as peasants could own their crops but all sales had to be under a uniform state purchasing system.) According to Document No. 2007107 issued by the Beijing Construction Commission (date unspecified), the housing's ownership had changed; the ownership of managed rental property vested in the state, and so individuals had no right to see information about it.

The plaintiff naturally disagreed, and so filed suit under the Regulations. She has also asked the Beijing Construction Commission for a copy of Document No.  2007107, but has not yet received a response.

Public Interest Law Institute seeks Country Director for China

Please see the full announcement for details. The application deadline is June 30, 2008.

Here's some information about PILI from the announcement:

PILI is an international organization that advances human rights around the world by stimulating public interest advocacy and developing the institutions necessary to sustain it. PILI pursues this mission by building capacity of civil society organizations and leaders, by providing technical assistance on reforming legal aid systems and legal education, and by promoting pro bono legal practice globally. It was founded in 1997 at Columbia University and became an independent organization in February 2007.  In addition to its Budapest headquarters, PILI conducts its work from hubs in New York, Moscow, Belgrade and Beijing. 

PILI has two major objectives in China: 1) to help expand the scope and effectiveness of public interest law networks advancing the rights of women, migrants and other vulnerable populations in China; and 2) to promote the provision of pro bono legal services to public interest organizations by developing a clearinghouse to match them with law firms. For more information on PILI’s work, please visit our website at www.pili.org

With additional funding and expanded programming in China, PILI is now opening an office in Beijing and creating a new position of Country Director. The Country Director will be PILI’s chief representative in China, overseeing all programs, contributing significantly to further program development and fundraising, and representing PILI to donors and other partners. Leading candidates will be lawyers with demonstrated expertise and interest in legal reform and public interest law in China, as well as strong project management skills. The position offers a competitive salary and benefits package.