The Constitution -- long just a lofty concept for ordinary Chinese -- has become a focus of national attention on China's first Legal Publicity Day.

December 4, the day China's current Constitution went into effect in 1982, has been chosen as the annual Legal Publicity Day to spread awareness of the state's basic law, according to legal experts.

While the Constitution represents the supreme authority of the land, it has bearing on the everyday life of the general public, the experts say.

Since the first version of the Constitution was enacted by the first National People's Congress (NPC) in 1954, there have been altogether four versions of the Constitution in new China's history.

In 1982, the NPC promulgated the fourth version of constitution, which has since been amended three times and is followed nowadays. With the highest authoritative voice, the nation's Constitution is the fundamental guarantee of citizens' rights and interests.

Constitution "put on shelf" and worshiped

"For a long time in China's judicial practice, however, the Constitution wasn't regarded as direct legal basis for court rulings, which has estranged it from the people's daily life," said Zeng Xianyi, president of the Law Institute of the People's University of China.

Huang Songyou, a chief judge from the Supreme People's Court of China, said, "Among all kinds of laws applied in China, the Constitution used to be a source of embarrassment."

"On the one hand, the Constitution is honored as the state's basic law, acting as the 'mother' of various laws and regulations; on the other hand, the majority of its content has been placed, neglected, 'on the shelf' in China's judicial activities, having no practical legal effect," Huang added.

For the first time directly used in court verdict

But the situation is changing. When dealing with a case about someone usurping other people's name to go to school this August, the Shandong Provincial Supreme People's Court for the first time made the verdict by directly following the Constitution's provisions.

As the first case successfully applying Constitutional law in judicial procedures, it has been applauded by the media, as well as legal and academic circles.

Experts said that in this case, the Constitution was first directly linked to judicial practice on civil liability of the citizens, which meant a substantial progress in the role of the Constitution in the sector of laws.

Not long after this case, a court in Fengkai County, south China's Guangdong Province, also tried a case involving infringement of women's rights in accordance with provisions in the Constitution.

Tracing back Chinese people's Costitution awareness

Actually, the Constitution awareness of Chinese can be traced back to 1998.

An employee with a restaurant in Beijing didn't get his voter card in that year's election of the local legislature. He filed a lawsuit over the denial of his right to vote, which is clearly stipulated in the Constitution, but the case was eventually dismissed.

"I was very surprised about that case," said businessman Liang Zhongliang. "Though I know the Constitution is the country's basic law, I have never connected it with our daily life, let alone realized its importance in ensuring our rights and interests."

Spreading of Constitution awareness and law knowledge urged

Zhao Xudong, a professor of the China University of Political Science and Law, said that knowledge of the Constitution needs to be spread among the general public, as it can provide the most comprehensive legal assistance to protect citizens' legal rights.

Zeng Xianyi suggested that while adhering to the premise that the NPC and its standing committee possess the right of supervision on implementation of the Constitution, a special setup under the NPC be created to supervise implementation of Constitutional law.

"It is necessary to ensure, through such a mechanism, that citizens are able to protect their own Constitutional rights by referring their suggestions to the NPC and its standing committee when their rights and interests endowed by the Constitution are violated," Zeng said.

Chinese Justice Minister Zhang Fusen said, "The initiation of the Legal Publicity Day will help create a favorable legal atmosphere in the society."

"Like the Consumer Rights Day and the Anti-Drug Day, more and more Chinese citizens will gradually get familiar with the Legal Publicity Day and know how to better protect their own rights and interests legally," the minister said.

(People's Daily December 06, 2001)