In order to deeply explore the mechanism of guaranteeing the rights of Chinese lawyers in criminal defense, and to promote the healthy development of China's criminal defense lawyers industry, on September 22, 2024, “Seminar on the Mechanism of Guaranteeing the Rights of Chinese Lawyers in Criminal Defense”, which was sponsored by the Law School of the China University of Political Science and Law, the Lawyers' Research Center of the China University of Political Science and Law, and the Lawyers' Law Society of Beijing, and co-sponsored by the Beijing Poying Law Office “was grandly held in China University of Political Science and Law. King&Capital Law Firm senior partner, director of the Kyoto Criminal Defense Research Center, Liang Yali lawyers were invited to participate in the meeting and make a special speech.
Scene of the Seminar
The theme of the seminar was “Seminar on the Mechanism for Guaranteeing the Rights of Chinese Lawyers in Criminal Defense”, aiming to analyze the current situation and dilemma of the exercise of the rights of Chinese lawyers in criminal defense through the in-depth discussion by experts, scholars and senior criminal defense lawyers, and to put forward the mechanism and suggestions for the improvement and guarantee of the rights of lawyers in criminal defense. The conference adopts the form of combining offline and online, attracting more than 70 professors, lawyers and experts and scholars from China University of Political Science and Law and more than 50 law firms in Beijing and Hebei to participate in the seminar.
The opening ceremony of the meeting was presided over by Prof. Cheng Tao, professor of the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law and director of the Legal Documentation Research Society of China Law Society. Professor Wang Jinxi, Director of Lawyers' Studies Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, Vice President of Beijing Lawyers' Law Research Association and Vice President of Lawyers' Law Research Association of China Law Society, and Lawyer Liu Bin, Vice President of Beijing Lawyers' Law Research Association, Deputy Director of Criminal Law Committee of Beijing Lawyers' Association, and Founder and Director of Beijing Zhongxun Law Firm, delivered speeches on behalf of the organizers respectively.
Professor Wang Jinxi pointed out in his speech that the importance of the protection of lawyers' right to criminal defense is not only a legal issue, but also a comprehensive issue involving the concept, mechanism and strategy of the rule of law. Lawyers' right to defense is not only to protect lawyers themselves, but also to protect citizens' basic rights and freedom. He emphasized the important role of the lawyers' profession in the national economic and political strategy, and the necessity of improving the lawyers' practice environment to enhance the business environment.
The seminar was divided into two halves, respectively focusing on two topics: “The exercise and dilemma of Chinese lawyers‘ right to criminal defense” and “Improvement and protection of Chinese lawyers’ right to criminal defense” to carry out in-depth discussions. Among them, the first half was presided over by Dr. Meng Jie from the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law, and experts and scholars such as Professor Cheng Tao, Lawyer Liang Yali, and Associate Professor Wang Yinglong analyzed the current situation and dilemmas of the exercise of Chinese lawyers' rights of criminal defense from the aspects of questionnaires, the right to read the documents, the right to investigate and obtain evidence, and legal aid.
Mr. Liang Yali made a special speech
Liang Yali, executive director of China Criminal Law Research Association, senior partner of King&Capital Law Firm and director of King&Capital Criminal Defense Research Center, analyzed the conceptual misunderstandings of the right to criminal defense and the dilemmas of lawyers' practice in light of her own rich experience of many years of practice in criminal defense and called on the academia to pay attention to these issues, expecting to establish an effective safeguard mechanism to safeguard the rights of the lawyers and the rights and interests of the prosecuted persons, and to provide a fairer practicing environment for the lawyers. fair practice environment for lawyers.
Liang Yali lawyer from the right to meet with, the right to read the file, the right to access to evidence three aspects of the detailed discussion. She said that the right to meet with the accused is the most basic right, she also introduced some extra-territorial laws and regulations on meeting, explaining that the right to meet with the accused as part of the right to defense, international judicial practice tends to recognize its source as the accused's litigation rights. In addition to the widely-discussed issue of meeting, the conceptual misunderstanding of the right to read documents and the right to investigate and obtain evidence in the practical world also profoundly affects the effective realization of the legitimate litigation rights of criminal suspects and defendants.
Mr. Liang Yali made a special speech
Regarding the exercise of the right to read the file, Mr. Liang Yali said that it is often difficult to accurately record the number of times the prosecuted person was interrogated in the case file. In some cases involving black cases, the defense of criminal cases, the synchronous audio and video recording of the access can not be guaranteed, need to be highly concerned about the academic and industry, Liang YaLi lawyers also emphasized that, the basis of the conclusion of the appraisal opinion, such as appraisal based on the samples or attachments, often can not be synchronized with the prosecuted person. Especially in the financial crime cases, defense lawyers can not be informed of the audit trail, which makes it impossible to audit from the professional point of view of the conclusion of the appraisal opinion to be judged, so, the scope of the prosecution should be clearly included in the scope of the appraisal opinion of the annexes, samples, in order to determine the reasonableness of the relevant appraisal opinion. Mr. Liang Yali also pointed out that, for the complaint cases, especially the complaint of the official cases and the black-related cases, it is difficult for the complaint lawyers to obtain the investigation file, which leads to the problem of “difficult to file” in the complaint cases, and the right to read the file in the complaint cases, especially the access to the investigation file, needs to be further guaranteed. In addition to this, there are problems in classified cases, such as the difficulty of reading files and the lack of uniformity in classification standards. In particular, the materials used to determine confidentiality have not been examined in court, and there is a major dispute as to whether they can be used as a basis for restricting access to the files.
Finally, for the exercise of the right to investigate and obtain evidence, LiangYaLi lawyer pointed out that the defense lawyer to retrieve the evidence to “source is not lawful” as the reason for the phenomenon of not recognized, triggering defense lawyers on the evidence of the legitimacy of the standard of thought. Liang yali lawyers think, based on the prosecution and defense of different sources of power, the public prosecutor on behalf of the state accusation of crime, relying on the state machinery and public power, in order to prevent the abuse of public power, the first thing is to investigate the legality of the evidence review, and the review of the standard is extremely strict. And the defender's rights in criminal proceedings are derived from private rights, the facts of the charge of innocence, misdemeanor reasonable doubt, and the way to challenge can include proof, can also be just common sense, jurisprudence, logic of argumentation. Therefore, the review of the evidence adduced by the defense should focus more on its authenticity and relevance to the facts of the charge, and the review of legality is instead secondary. When the right of access to evidence can not be realized, LiangYaLi lawyers think can be to the local judicial administrative organs, people's courts, public security organs and other relevant departments to assist and protect, legally exercise the right to access to evidence. Liang Yali also called on the academia and the industry to pay attention to the issue of defense rights, strengthen the right to meet with, the right to read the documents, the right to investigate and obtain evidence and other important rights of the defense to protect the work, and to seek a balance between the punishment of crime and the protection of human rights.
The second half of the meeting was hosted by Bai Bing, associate professor of Law School of China University of Political Science and Law, with the topic of “Improvement and Protection of Criminal Defense Rights of Chinese Lawyers”. Experts and scholars including Song Zhenjiang, Director of the Industry Strategy Development Committee of Hebei Lawyers' Association, Zhang Jiahua, Associate Professor of China University of Political Science and Law, and Guo Xiaofei, Associate Professor of China University of Political Science and Law, put forward mechanisms and suggestions to improve and safeguard lawyers' rights to criminal defense from the aspects of protection of lawyers' associations, modification of the Criminal Procedure Law, and improvement of the legislation, respectively.
In his concluding remarks, Liu Guiming, Executive Director of the Editorial Board of the Rule of Law Times magazine and Vice President of the Beijing Lawyers' Law Research Association, expressed his gratitude to all participants for their wonderful speeches and positive contributions. He emphasized that the protection of lawyers' right to criminal defense is an important part of the construction of the rule of law, and hoped that this conference could promote the improvement of the relevant system and practice.
Attorney Liang Yali's photo of the conference
Group photo of participants
The “Chinese lawyers criminal defense rights protection mechanism seminar” came to a successful conclusion. Participating experts and scholars have said that this seminar is rich in content and fruitful, analyzing the current situation and dilemma of the mechanism of guaranteeing the rights of Chinese lawyers in criminal defense, and putting forward the mechanism and suggestions for improving and guaranteeing the rights of lawyers in criminal defense, which provides an important reference value for promoting the improvement of the mechanism of guaranteeing the rights of Chinese lawyers in criminal defense.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
