On Rugulation of Impunity for First Violation in Administrative Discretion

When Administrative Penalties Lawwas revised in 2021, the first-violation impunity system was officially clarified in legal form, which provided a legal basis for its application in practice. However, the relevant provisions in this law are relatively general and abstract, and there is a huge room for interpretation for the expression "if the first violation of the law and the harmful consequences are minor and corrected in a timely manner". And this gives administrative organizations a large discretionary power. Improper exercise of the discretionary power can easily infringe the legitimate rights and interests of the parties. There are three main reasons for the irregular exercise of the discretionary power. Firstly, the requirements of the law are not clear. Secondaly, there is no unified standard for the discretion of the behavior effect. And thirdly, the system lacks a supporting procedural discretion benchmark. Accordingly, some measures can be taken for this. The first is to further clarify the connotation of legal language such as "first violation of the law, and the consequences of harm are minor". The second is to determine the standard of discretion, and the space for administrative organs to make independent judgments is minimized as much as possible. Lastly, we have to establish and improve legal procedures for the operation of administrative discretion.