Restudy on Determining the Defendant in Administrative Litigation

The word is used in several meanings in practice, because of the complexity of administrative management and deficiencies of substantive administrative regulations. Article 19 of judicial interpretation on administrative litigation law says that we shall determine which administrative agency to be the defendant in litigation basing on whether the upper agency has put its signature on the decision. This way of determining the defendant is not in line with the theory of administrative law. To determine which agency is the defendant, we should decide whether an administrative act is inner examination and approval from the angle of administrative power and legal consequence firstly.