"If you have any questions, please contact my lawyer," is a
phrase increasingly familiar to more and more Chinese people.
However, there is no law to protect a lawyer's right to investigate
a case or collect evidence, and they say they often meet with
obstruction and evasion because of it.
Gao Zongze, principal of the
All China Lawyers Association, said an amendment to the Lawyers
Law was drafted at the 2nd Chinese Youth Lawyers Forum, which ended
on May 15. The amendment will be delivered to the State Council
this year.
In preparing the amendment, the Committee for Internal and
Judicial Affairs of the National
People's Congress began research in April in Beijing, Tianjin
and Chongqing municipalities as well as the provinces of Anhui and
Guangdong.
At the forum, lawyers discussed the difficulties involved in
collecting evidence with attending judges, saying that sometimes it
is even hard for them to meet the litigants involved in their
cases.
Chen Xingliang, vice dean of Peking University
Law School, said that lawyers should be considered freelancers who
provide legal services, since their rights are an extension of the
individual rights of a citizen rather than those of the state or
society.
The Ministry of Justice also hopes to aid further reforms by
establishing systems to examine lawyers' standards and provide
guidance for them.
(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan, May 23, 2005)