Monday, March 8, 2010

President of China Bar Association requests Supreme Court to give judicial interpretation on falsifying evidence

Over at my law school blog, I wrote about President of China's National Bar Association - Yu Ning's proposal to the Supreme Court to give judicial interpretation to Article 306 of the Criminal Law.


This of course, could be seen as a response to the Li Zhuang case, in which a prominent criminal defense lawyer was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment (on second trial) for falsifying evidence and obstructing witnessing. But besides the colorful elite political faction stories, it shows a real problem in China's legal system - if the law is unclear about what are the legal actions of lawyer during consultation, investigation and various stages/periods of representation, not only would they be under the risk of being wrongly accused, but their ability to represent their client is restrained; and if people cannot get equal and competent legal defense when they are accused, the entire criminal law system is in question.


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