Three Open Letters Sent to President Zhao Qiang,Chief Prosecutor Cao Jianming and Minister Jiang Daming Officially
On April 18 Beijing DHH Law Firm, the sponsor of the Forum on the Legal Issues concerning the Claims and Liabilities for the Bohai Oil Pollution and the Re-authorization of ConocoPhillips China, officially sent three open letters. The letters went to President Zhou Qiang of the Supreme People’s Court, Chief Prosecutor Cao Jianming of the Supreme Procuratorate and Minister Jiang Daming of the Ministry of Land and Resources. The letters were co-signed by 49 professors, experts and lawyers who attended the Forum held on April 16.
The signatories included Huo Weifang, Yang Jinzhu, Jia Fangyi, Ma Yong and Luan Shaohu etc, and also two leading dignitaries. These were administrative law expert Xiong Wenzhao and Professor Liu Xin from the University of Political Science and Law. The former is an advocator for the building of law-based government and the reform of the super ministry system of administrative bodies. The latter is currently the Vice President of the Administrative Law Society. Both of them held, in their speechs at the Forum that the re-authorization of ConocoPhillips China by the State Oceanic Administration was a form of administrative licensing, for which procedures of hearing and publicity were deemed necessary.
Lawyer Luan Shaohu said he believed the three state organ leaders would seriously consider the social concerns expressed in the letters and reply in due course because all of them had strongly advocated the building of the rule of law.