The Supreme court has issued provisions which seek to reaffirm the rights of litigation lawyers. The law protects the rights of litigation lawyers in China, when they are carrying out their duties. Those rights are:
- The right to know
- The right of reading, printing and keeping case files
- The right to appear in a court debate
- The right to defend their client
- The right to apply for exclusion of illegal evidence
- The right to apply for and obtain evidence
- The right to security
- Right of appeal
These eight rights should all be very common and uncontroversial in China. However, the Supreme Court has felt the need to reaffirm and emphasize the position. Though lacking new content new content, the significance of this provision is significant. It signals the importance to those in power of the campaign of promoting judicial reform. Furthermore, it highlights that the role of lawyers cannot be ignored; to promote the rule of law, lawyers are indispensable.
Shortly before publication, twelve lawyers and legal scholars attended the Central Political and Law Commission, with the secretary of the Central Political and Law Commission and the Minister of Justice, to have face to face talks about the legal system in China. We believe that the new provisions and these events are certainly linked.
The status and enhanced role of lawyers, needs more than just a few representative events and declarations of principles. There needs to be comprehensive rules, systems and an environment in which said rules are actively obeyed.
This is a major issue to which this short article cannot devote sufficient time. Our views are that:
- Firstly, the system of lawyer’s rights requires less discretion and more certainty. Rules should be drafted using words like ‘must’ and ‘shall’, rather than ‘may’ or ‘can’;
- Secondly, the rights of lawyers should be rigorously enforced.
Authors: Chris Fung & Wang Yu