During a case involving multiple offences in Huizhou, Guangdong, the defendants’ lawyers left the room without giving any explanation. This action comes at a moment when the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has published “Provisions on protecting lawyers’ professional rights according to the law”. The goal of this action is to denounce the multiple illegal procedures and unjust decisions handed down by Chinese courts.
It appears as if the conflict between judges and lawyers in China is equivalent to the one between the prosecution and the defence in other countries. This derives from China’s history: once judges had not a good knowledge of the law, thus lawyers had the upper hand in the court hearings. However, now judges are more competent, and handle cases in a more authoritative way; this brought about the recent conflicts.
Moreover, lawyers create all these troubles to pressure judges into pushing forward their cases. Because the legal system is still under reform, there are issues in the evidence collection process and court procedures, therefore the quality of court hearings is not very high. Only once these problems are solved will judges be confident enough to respond to lawyers and increase the quality of court hearings.
The author thinks that both sides should try to safeguard the fariness of legal procedures. Judges should considers lawyers’ ability to defend their clients an incentive for bettering their capacity to examine cases and collect evidence. Lawyers should promote fair trial by respecting judges and legal procedures.
