provisions of a treaty. Unlike common law jurisdictions, there is no strict precedential concept for case law and no principle of stare decisis. In addition, there is no case or controversy requirement that would require the Supreme People's Court to limit its decisions to actual cases, and the SPC does issue general interpretations of the law. In practice, lower people's court judges attempt to follow the interpretations of the laws decided by the Supreme People's Court. In addition, unlike common law jurisdictions, higher courts have the power of supervision and guidance, which means that on their own initiative they can reopen a case that has been decided at a lower level. Courts in the PRC do not have a general power of judicial review which enables them to strike down legislation. However under the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, they do have authority to invalidate specific acts of the government. In cases where there is a conflict of laws, the process to resolve this conflict is outlined in the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China, in which an interpretation is requested by the legislative body that is responsible for the law. This process has been criticized both by Western and Chinese legal scholars for being unwieldy and for not allowing for judicial independence and separation of powers. At the same time, the counterargument has been made that resolving legal conflicts is primarily a legislative activity and not a judicial one. Finally, courts outside of the special autonomous regions, including the Supreme People's Court, do not have jurisdiction over the Hong Kong and Macau SAR's; although, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress does have and has used its authority to interpret the Basic Law of Hong Kong. Varieties of law PRC governmental directives exist in a hierarchy, which is defined by the Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China. The hierarchy of regulations are The Constitution of the People's Republic of China National laws (国家法律 guójiā fǎlǜ), which are issued by the National People's Congress Administrative regulations, which are issued by the State Council Local decrees, which are issued by local People's Congresses Administrative and local rules, which are issued by an administrative agency or by a local People's Government Major areas of law are substantive laws and procedural laws. The former include administrative law, criminal law, civil law or business law,