1. Article 26 The Council of Commissioners may propose bills to the Standing Committee for consideration at the Standing Committee's meetings.
The State Council, the Central Military Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the specialized committees of the National People's Congress may submit bills of law to the Standing Committee, which shall decide to place them on the agenda of a meeting of the Standing Committee by a meeting of the chairmen of the committees, or shall refer them to the specialized committees concerned for deliberation and the submission of a report before deciding that they should be placed on the agenda of a meeting of the Standing Committee. If the committee chairman's meeting considers that there is a major issue in the bill that needs to be further studied, it may suggest the sponsor to revise and improve the bill before submitting it to the Standing Committee.
2. Article 27 The members of the Standing Committee, more than ten of them jointly, may propose a bill to the Standing Committee, and the chairman of the Standing Committee shall decide whether to include it in the agenda of the Standing Committee's meeting, or to refer it to the relevant specialized committee for deliberation, and make a report on whether to include it in the agenda of the meeting, and then decide whether to include it in the agenda of the Standing Committee's meeting. If it is not included in the agenda of the meeting of the Standing Committee, it shall report to the meeting of the Standing Committee or explain to the sponsor.
When the specialized committee deliberates, it may invite the sponsors to attend the meeting and express their opinions.
3. Article 29 A legal bill included in the agenda of a meeting of the Standing Committee shall generally be considered by three meetings of the Standing Committee before it is put to the vote.
The first time the Standing Committee meeting deliberates on a legal bill, it hears the explanation of the sponsor in the plenary session, and the preliminary deliberation is conducted by the subgroup meeting.
The second time the Standing Committee meeting deliberates on a legal bill, it hears the report of the Legal Committee on the modification of the draft law and the main issues in the plenary session, and the subgroup meetings further deliberate on it.
The Standing Committee meets for the third time to consider the bills, hears the report of the Legal Committee on the results of the deliberations on the draft laws in the Plenary, and deliberates on the revised draft laws in sub-group meetings.
When the Standing Committee deliberates on a bill, it may convene a group meeting or a plenary meeting to discuss the main issues in the draft law, if necessary.
4. Article 30 A bill included in the agenda of a meeting of the Standing Committee may be put to the vote after deliberation at two meetings of the Standing Committee if the views of all parties are more consistent; a bill which adjusts a single matter or is partially amended may also be put to the vote after deliberation at one meeting of the Standing Committee if the views of all parties are more consistent.
5. Article 31 When the Standing Committee meets in groups to deliberate on legal bills, the sponsors shall send persons to listen to their opinions and answer inquiries.
When a group meeting of the Standing Committee deliberates on a legal case, at the request of the group, the relevant organ or organization shall send someone to introduce the situation.
6. Article 32 A legal case included in the agenda of a meeting of the Standing Committee shall be deliberated by the relevant specialized committee, which shall put forward its deliberation opinions and issue them to the meeting of the Standing Committee.
When the relevant specialized committee deliberates on a legal case, it may invite members of other specialized committees to attend the meeting and express their opinions.
7. Article 33 Legal bills included in the agenda of the Standing Committee meeting, the Legal Committee shall, based on the deliberation of the members of the Standing Committee, the relevant specialized committees and the opinions of various parties, conduct a unified deliberation on the legal bills, and put forward a report on the modification of the situation or a report on the results of the deliberation and the revised draft of the law, and on the important Differing opinions shall be explained in the report or the report on the results of deliberation. If the deliberations of the relevant specialized committees are not adopted, feedback shall be given to the specialized committees concerned.
When the Legal Committee deliberates on a bill, it shall invite the members of the relevant specialized committee to attend the meeting and express their opinions.
8. Article 34 The specialized committee shall convene a plenary meeting to consider a legal case, and may, as required, request the organ or organization concerned to send the person in charge to explain the situation.
9. Article 35 The specialized committees shall report to the presidium when they disagree on important issues concerning a draft law.
10. Article 36 The Legal Committee, the relevant specialized committees and the working organs of the Standing Committee shall listen to the opinions of various parties on bills included in the agenda of the Standing Committee. Hearing opinions can take various forms such as symposiums, seminars and hearings.
Where the issues involved in a legal bill are highly specialized and require feasibility evaluation, a debating committee shall be convened to hear the opinions of relevant experts, departments and representatives of the National People's Congress. The argumentation shall be reported to the Standing Committee.
Where there are major differences of opinion on issues related to a legal case or where a major adjustment of interests is involved and a hearing is required, a hearing shall be convened to hear the views of representatives of the relevant grass-roots organizations and groups, departments, people's organizations, experts, delegates to the National People's Congress and relevant sectors of the community. The hearings shall be reported to the Standing Committee.
The working organs of the Standing Committee shall send draft laws to deputies of the National People's Congress in relevant fields, standing committees of local people's congresses, and relevant departments, organizations and experts for comments.
11. Article 37 A bill included in the agenda of a meeting of the Standing Committee shall, after the meeting of the Standing Committee, be published to the public for comment, together with the explanations of its drafting and revision, unless the meeting of the chairman of the Standing Committee decides not to publish it. The period of time for publicizing the draft law to the public for comments is generally not less than thirty days. The public shall be notified of the public comments.
12. Article 41 The revised draft law is considered at a meeting of the Standing Committee, and the Legal Committee shall make revisions in accordance with the deliberations of the members of the Standing Committee, and put forward a voting draft law, which shall be submitted to the plenary session of the Standing Committee by the meeting of the chairman of the committee for a vote, and shall be adopted by the Standing Committee by a majority of the total number of the members of the Standing Committee.
Before the draft law is submitted to the Standing Committee for a vote, the chairman of the committee may decide, in the light of the deliberations of the Standing Committee, to submit to the Standing Committee for a separate vote the important articles on which there is a wide divergence of opinions.
After the articles voted on separately have been voted on by the Standing Committee, the Chairman of the Standing Committee may, in the light of the circumstances of the separate vote, decide to put the draft law to a vote, or decide not to put it to a vote for the time being, and refer it to the Legal Committee and the relevant specialized committees for further deliberation.
13. Article 42 If a bill included in the deliberations of a meeting of the Standing Committee is shelved for two years due to a wide divergence of opinions on the necessity or feasibility of enacting such a law, or if it is not included in the agenda of a meeting of the Standing Committee for deliberation after two years due to the withholding of the vote, the chairperson of the committee shall report to the Standing Committee that the bill has been terminated and has not been put on the agenda of a meeting of the Standing Committee. The Council of Commissioners shall report to the Standing Committee that the consideration of the bill has been terminated.
Article 43 If amendments are made to individual articles of several laws concerning the same kind of matters, and the bills are submitted together, they may be voted on together or separately by a decision of the Council of Commissioners.
15. Article 44 Laws adopted by the Standing Committee shall be promulgated by decree signed by the President of the State.