“依法治党”的提法,早在十五大提出“依法治国”的基本方略之前,就已经见诸报章了。据笔者检索,最早在１９９４年,就有文章在提到加强党内制度建设、健全民主集中制时,用了“依法治党”这个词。但那时的理论文章,都没有对“依法治党”这个概念作出界定和解释,从行文的内容来看 The formulation of “governing the party according to law” has already appeared in newspapers before the 15th CPC National Congress proposed the basic principle of “governing the country according to law.” According to the author’s search, as early as 1994, there was an article referring to the phrase “governing the party according to law” when it comes to strengthening the construction of the inner-party system and improving democratic centralism. However, the theoretical articles at that time did not define and explain the concept of “governing the party by law”. From the perspective of the contents