The Defense Lawyer in the Scales of Chinese Criminal Justice

Abstract

Western critics are keenly interested in the defense lawyer as an advocate within the human rights movement in China and fear that under the impact of state persecution the defense lawyer is becoming an ‘endangered species’. This article argues that, while there are significant problems, there has also been progress in Chinese lawyering reform that ties together greater professionalism with a new emphasis on due process. The revised Lawyers’ Law of 2007 is an important new benchmark in lawyer reform. This law has challenged the limited dimensions of earlier reform. This law, itself, has been challenged in bureaucratic resistance that is deploying outdated criminal procedural law to negate the reforms supporting the new process and protected lawyer–client relations. The National People’s Congress has supported the latter, arguing that it represents the latest in reform and is, therefore, superior to the more restrictive provisions of the 1996 Criminal Procedural Law and supporting public security regulation.