Mengyin county embeds legal review in industry chain development

Mengyin county in Linyi, East China's Shandong province, has moved legality review from paperwork to the front end of industry chain development, embedding it in policy supply, project contracting, state asset operations and major reforms to build a full-chain legal safeguard system.

The county judicial bureau, positioning itself as a legal adviser, decision gatekeeper and risk sentinel, has established a dual mechanism of regular and special reviews. Against newly issued laws and regulations including the Private Economy Promotion Law, it has carried out special reviews targeting market access discrimination, hidden barriers and exclusive clauses, revising or repealing provisions as needed so that the policy system aligns with fair competition requirements.

Policies involving key industry chains are fully included in coordinated review, with core indicators for fair competition review refined. Any matter involving market entity access, allocation of resource factors or subsidy policies must first pass the fair competition check. In reviewing provisions for a sludge resource utilization project, the bureau promptly recommended deleting clauses that restricted competition, safeguarding a unified, open and orderly market.

Judicial office directors attending township and subdistrict Party committee meetings and industry chain meetings has become a standing rule, moving the review gate from after-the-fact endorsement to pre-meeting checks. Review ledgers and standardized archives make each step traceable.

For major policies and urgent projects related to industry chain development, the county has opened a green channel for legality review, prioritizing acceptance, conducting parallel reviews and setting time limits, with urgent matters reviewed on submission and feedback the same day. The average review time for enterprise-related policy matters has been reduced to one or two working days, with 64 reviews completed rapidly.

Rather than waiting for submissions, the county has sent judicial administration and discipline inspection professionals into projects as "legal stewards," providing full-chain legal support from contract drafting and clause negotiation to performance risk control. In reviewing the admission agreement for a green smart drilling rig industrial park project, the team raised 12 key amendments, helping the company avoid major legal risks at the source. The county has also compiled and dynamically updated a list of legal risk reminders for enterprise-related documents, sending it to policy-making units and companies so that compliance reminders arrive before contracts are signed.

Legality review has become a mandatory preliminary procedure for major industrial plans studied by the county Party committee and government. In reviewing the green smart drilling rig industrial park plan, review opinions addressed key issues to ensure the industrial layout is lawful and complies with market rules and local conditions.

The same rigor applies to state-owned enterprise reform. Focusing on investment cooperation, asset restructuring and large fund use by county-owned enterprises, the county has reviewed 58 major topics and normative documents in state asset supervision, raising more than 200 legal review opinions. For major reform matters involving industrial development, it adheres to the principle of review first, legality as the basis and controllable risk, completing reviews of eight major industrial reform plans with 76 legal recommendations.

Editor：韩蒙蒙