All Chinese lawyers can now enjoy the solicitude of the Communist Party as party guides are dispatched to all Chinese law offices that don’t have a Communist Party branch in them. PRC Justice Minister Wu Aiying’s recent statement reported in the Chinese media describes on how the Chinese Communist Party had achieved full coverage of all law offices.
Another aspect of the crackdown on human rights lawyers over the past few years. One Chinese lawyer observed recently that with the large number of law graduates from Chinese universities, it is getting harder for lawyers to turn down business and stick to safer things like corporate law (safe at least unless there are party officials involved in the corporate scandal!!)
I translated the first few paragraphs and summarized the rest. Putting the title in quotes and searching on Google.cn turned up 957 places, mostly blogs where it had been reposted. One blogger added another title — which is more important, the Party or the Law?
Zhang Wen’s blog starts out…
Lawyers Need Obey Nothing But the “Law”
“Two days ago, the Minister of Justice Wu Aiying talked about the work of lawyers. The main idea is that lawyers should stress politics, consider the overall situation, observe discipline and obey the Party.
From her talk, I learned some precise figures for the first time. “Currently, of the 14,000 law offices in China, 3895 have their own Party branch, 8075 law offices have set up 2692 jointly established Party branches. Guidance people or contact people have been sent to all the remaining 2741 legal offices that do not have Party members in order to implement ahead of schedule complete coverage of law offices by the Party organization and Party work.”
The Party is truly everywhere. The rays of light emanating from the Party shine everywhere. I can’t help by feel the joy. Even before the Party had covered the work of lawyers, it had long ago covered public security, prosecutorial organs and the courts. Now the Party covers the entire process of justice. ”
Zhang goes on to say that the Party’s coverage of the legal system hasn’t helped things since corruption in the legal system is common. The lawyer’s job is to be neutral and defend his client according to law, but some judges get angry when the lawyer does their job, accusing them of not being cooperative. Increasingly, lawyers are becoming unwilling to handle criminal or sensitive cases for fear of getting into trouble themselves. Zhang concludes by saying the Justice Minister should be told that lawyers need to obey the law and shouldn’t be obeying anyone else.
律师只需听“法”的话 / 章文
2009-08-08 22:22 | 阅读(817) | 标签: 律师, 党, 法 | 字号：大 中 小
两天前，司法部长吴爱英讲了一番话，是针对律师工作的，大意是，律师要讲政治，顾大局，守纪律，听党的话。
从她的话中，我还第一次得知这么准确的数字，“截至目前，全国1．4万多家律师事务所中，单独建立党支部3895个，8075家律师事务所联合建立党支部 2692个，对2741个无党员的律师事务所，全部派驻了指导员或联络员，提前实现了党的组织和党的工作对律师行业的全覆盖。”
党真是无处不在啊，党的光芒普照大地。我不由地要从内心发出这样的感慨。党对律师工作覆盖之前，早就覆盖了公检法，现在党覆盖了司法的全过程。
台湾的小马哥当上“总统”后，最近又兼任国民党主席，党政军大权集于一身，在岛内引发不少非议。但小马哥的借口是，这是为了“完全执政，完全负责”。
今日，党覆盖了司法的全过程，能够对司法正义负责么？遗憾的是，我们没看到。我们看到的是，司法腐败、司法不公依然严重。我们并看到，不少律师因为代理所 谓“敏感”案件的缘故，触犯了有司，而自身遭遇麻烦甚至陷进牢笼。
我总记得一位名律师对我说的一句话：律师为犯罪嫌疑人辩护，不是“为坏人开脱”，而是在履行自己的职责，要通过完整的司法过程，实现司法正义。任何罪大恶 极的嫌疑人通过律师的充分辩护后，依然在铁证面前被判有罪，那就证明这个案子的判决是公正的。
从这个意义上讲，律师和公诉人虽然职责不同，但最终目标应该一致：捍卫法律尊严，实现司法正义。但在不少案子中，律师被公诉人视若仇敌，更不可思议地是， 某些案子的法官竟然也会因律师的“不配合”而动怒。
几年前，另一位京城名律师对我诉苦说，现在愿意代理刑事案件的律师越来越少了，涉及政治的敏感案子更是少有律师敢接手了，因为风险太高，“搞不好就把自己 弄进去了！”
律师本应是中性的，他的工作是依法辩护，而不是看谁的眼色，听谁的话。难道在这个上面，还存在一个“中国特色”？这个所谓的“中国特色”，难道是要让律师 也和某些公检法人员一样知法犯法？难道也要让律师为了某些所谓的“大局”而牺牲法律尊严？
建设社会主义的民主和法治，是堂堂国家主席和总理，以及党的代表大会报告里所明确提出来的。在我看来，在推行科学发展观的今日，律师所谓的“正确的政治方 向”，就是要依法辩护，维护司法正义的同时，为社会的公平和公正，贡献自己的力量。
转型社会，矛盾丛生。牢骚、怨恨，宜疏不宜堵。一些触犯法律的案子，往往皆是不满情绪没有及时纾解导致，如果在法庭上再得不到公正的审判，不满就会上升为 仇恨，不利于社会和谐。
因此，我想对吴部长说，从建设和谐社会的理念出发，律师只要听“法”的话，就不必再听其他任何人的话了！
高大伟 David Cowhig's Translation Blog 