Greater Room for Lawyers to Manoeuvre Urged in ChinaMuch has already been achieved by China in protecting the legal rights and interests of lawyers and creating a fine environment for them to go about their work. Yet many problems still exist and have to be solved to that end, according to sources from a national conference on efforts for improved work and safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of lawyers held in Chengdu, Sichuan.There are already 112,000 lawyers and as many as 9,000 law offices having been set up throughout China. As things stand in the country, the lawyers' work has come to cover various social aspects from traditional lawsuits and defending cases. Vice Chairman of All-China Lawyers Association Zhu Hongchao briefed the conference in Chengdu that since the founding of All-China Safeguarding Rights Commission by the Association in 1998, many similar organizations have been set up and have by their work won countrywide recognition and support from all social circles in China. However, he pointed out that things have not been all that satisfactory with regard to the protection of lawyers' legal rights and their interests when going about their work as lawyers in China. A look into various related legal cases found in 1999 shows that there were more than 70 constituting a violation of the legal rights and interests of lawyers. With these there are also a good many as having been found in the way to deprive them of the right to fight as defendants at court and even create difficulties to stop them from attending to work. There is nothing to blame but for the long-standing ill influence of traditional concepts slighting legal work and an imperfection of legislation with regard to lawyers' work as an indispensable occupation in China, Zhu said. |
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