The principle of reliance protection is legally based on the reasonable reliance of individuals resulting from the exercise of public power and the interest herein, which must be protected by law, otherwise the individuals may suffer an unexpected loss. But this principle is supposed to differ from other principles, norms or systems involving the protection of reliance and the interest herein. This principle does not originate from the principle of good faith, but from the principle of legal stability and the norms of basic rights, for the principle of good faith does not have definite normal connotations. A probe into the abolition of the specific administrative act in favor of the administrative counterpart shows the extremely limited protection provided for the reliance interests by the principle of reliance protection. Specifically, the protection provided by this principle merely lies in the illegal reimbursement decisions in which the administrative counterpart’s reliance interest deserves protection. In terms of legal or other illegal decisions in favor of the administrative counterpart, this principle functions together with the principle of administration by law. Compared with the latter, this principle is unique to a certain degree merely on a jurisprudential basis, which can be “legalized” and thus included in the latter. Besides, according to the base of reliance, the content of expectation, the core conditions of protection, and the phase and method of protection, the principle of reliance protection differs greatly from the principle of legitimate expectation protection. The principle of reliance protection has not been stipulated in the Administrative Licensing Law of the People’s Republic of China. On a jurisprudential basis, even this principle cannot be completely contained in the connotations of the principle of administration by law, it needs to be realized through the application of the latter. Thus it is supposed to make a further study on the possible meaning of the principle of reliance protection in our administrative law. |