Li Honglei and Li Xia (eds.), Commentary on the Law on Administrative Penalty, Beijing: China Legal Publishing House, 2021.

The newly revised Law on Administrative Penalty, which is divided into 8 chapters and consists of 86 articles, embodies the following major changes in the Law: clarifying the concept of administrative penalty, establishing new types of administrative penalty, appropriately expanding the competence of the central and local governments to set administrative penalties through administrative regulations and local regulations, establishing an evaluation system for the implementation of administrative penalties, and a comprehensive administrative law enforcement system, delegating the administrative penalty power to township governments and sub-district offices and incorporating it into the "three systems" of administrative law enforcement, implementing the requirements of the system whereby administrative law enforcement personnel assume offices with certificates and the administrative law enforcement personnel qualification management system, providing for the administrative penalty procedures related to epidemic prevention and control and the time limit for handling administrative penalty cases, extending the time limit for the investigation of liability for violations in key areas, improving the hearing system, clarifying the scope of legal review, establishing the system of "exempting the first-time violators from administrative penalty”, providing for the discretion benchmark for administrative penalties, establishing the electronic document service system and electronic fine payment system, strengthening the regulation of off-site law enforcement, establishing the major administrative penalty announcement system, and improving the mechanism for the linkage between administrative penalty system and criminal justice. The revised Law implements the important decisions and arrangements made by the Party Central Committee on the reform of the administrative law enforcement system, helps to promote strict, standardized, impartial and civilized law enforcement, can better prevent administrative nonfeasance and malfeasance, and,as such, has become a landmark legislation in the promotion of comprehensive law-based state governance in the new era.

The vitality and the authority of the law lie in its implementation. The book Commentary on Administrative Penalty Law was written by nine experts and scholars in the field of administrative law with a view to helping people from all walks of life accurately understand the newly revised Administrative Penalty Law and ensuring the effective implementation of this law. In writing the commentary, the authors have traced the origin and evolution of each article of the Law, clarified its regulatory purposes and functions as well as its regulatory content and requirements, and tried to accurately explain and analyze each provision on the basis of systematically and comprehensively understanding the Administrative Penalty Law and the entire administrative law system. They have also selected and reviewed some representative judicial cases, and pointed out issues that require special attention in understanding and application of the Law. With respect to controversial issues, they have not only summarized and refined general views and common practices, but also put forward and demonstrated their own views and positions.