Contexts
Legal
Translation Equivalents
- Jurisdictional Agency
- Lead Agency
- Competent Authority
Analysis
This complex term is used in Chinese administrative law. This one Chinese term has significantly different meanings in different contexts and maps onto several English terms. The most typical term is used in domestic law, and that is a jurisdictional agency, which refers to the agency that has the authority to administrate a matter but nonetheless may invite other agencies to participate. This concept is well-known to American law {US Law Explanation}(see sample US statute about jurisdictional agency identification).
A second, less common expression is lead agency, and this applies where there is one agency that takes the lead on a matter, but some duties are performed by other agencies referred to as an interested agency. For example, in China, the agency responsible for business entity formation is different from the agency that tracks and tabulates investment data; the lead agency here sends a copy of the business entity formation report to the interested agency, which then adds it to economic statistics.
Finally, where China is party to a treaty such as the Hague Convention or a Tax Treaty, the government agency that is designated to be the principal point of contact for filings and inquiries under the treaty is called the competent authority, and this is also the approach used by the USMCA and other North American treaties. Thus, limit use of competent authority language to treaties.
See our Article on the Chinese law concept for more details.
China English
Translation Equivalents
- Competent Authority
Analysis
The primary reason for the existing standardized translation is that China began signing treaties before it drafted its administrative law statutes. The treaty terminology “competent authority” was put into a glossary, and not knowing that domestic law in English uses different terminology, the term was recycled when the administrative law was translated. This apparently occurred over a century ago, and current translation experts in China are currently questioning whether modern administrative law terminology should be used.