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영어

Chinarebuiltthelawyersystem 30 years ago, but the role of lawyers in legal practice is still very restricted. There exist many problems in the current judicial system, especially the criminal proceedings, in where the lawyers’ rights are hardly guaranteed. Article 306 of the PRC Criminal Law, a legal provision on evidence fabrication that specifically targets defense attorneys, creates an uneven playing field with prosecutors, and therefore causes some unjust, feigned and misjudged cases. Recent cases where the lawyers were arrested on charges of “suborning perjury”—inciting clients or witnesses to commit perjury, such as “The Li Zhuang Case” and “Beihai, Guangxi Four Lawyers’ Case”, expose the lack of effective protection for lawyers’ rights. As a result, Chinese lawyers have become increasingly more unwilling to take criminal defense cases out of fear of being prosecuted. In order to safeguard their own rights and promote impartial justice, a number of lawyers use blog to disclose materials of cases, cover the trial procedure and exchange views. Through this interaction platform, lawyers who share common needs are able to communicate with each other and together as a team to plead for the defendants. On one hand, especially during the process of trial of high publicity cases, lawyers’ blogs play a major and principal role to communicate the most updated case information to the public, which can not be substituted by traditional media. On the other hand, by posting comments on the lawyers’ blogs and sharing/linkingrelevant blog messages, numerous netizens also express their concern about controversial cases, their support for the human right lawyers, and their demand for just trial. These form a legal landscape unique to contemporary China.