Barefoot lawyers

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A barefoot attorney (Chinese: 赤脚 律师 Pinyin: chìjiǎo lǜshī) is a self-taught lawyer in the People's Republic of China . Many barefoot lawyers are farmers who, through self-study, are sufficiently familiar with the legal system to file civil suits, engage in legal disputes, and educate fellow citizens about their rights. The model for the term “barefoot attorney” is the term “barefoot doctor”, farmers with minimal formal training who nevertheless provided essential medical services in rural China during the Mao Zedong era. Barefoot attorneys provide free legal services and in many cases take on controversial or politically sensitive cases, such as fighting corruption by local authorities that are not accepted by established lawyers. Notable examples of barefoot lawyers are activists Guo Feixiong and the blind Chen Guangcheng .

background

Since the legal reforms of the late 1970s and 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party has adopted the language of the rule of law and established a modern judicial system. In the process, she has enacted thousands of new laws and regulations, and started campaigns promoting the idea that citizens are protected under the law. When the Chinese leadership recognized the importance of the legal system and the legal system in promoting economic development, the training of lawyers increased dramatically. From 1986 to 1992, the number of lawyers in China more than doubled, from 21,500 to 45,000, and by 2008 the number had risen to 143,000.

Despite the enormous increase in the legal professions in China since the 1980s, many counties still suffer from a severe shortage of legal experts. In 2004, the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China found that 200 counties had no lawyers at all. This resulted in several different classes of lawyers and activists with different qualifications to meet the demand for legal professionals and advisors. While licensed attorneys and the less skilled “legal workers” tend to forge links with government agencies and local courts, barefoot attorneys are independent actors. Unlike most lawyers who are drawn to metropolitan areas, barefoot lawyers tend to operate in rural areas where citizens have limited access to justice and legal assistance. Although they lack the training and professionalism of lawyers, according to You-Tien Hsing and Ching Kwan Lee, barefoot lawyers perform an irreplaceable role by providing "cheap, accessible and free services" without political constraints.

education

Barefoot attorneys differ from licensed attorneys in that they acquired their knowledge in self-study, therefore do not have any formal training and therefore do not receive any license to practice as a lawyer. They are also different from “legal workers” who have a college education and are required to complete a six-month legal education program. Although barefoot attorneys have no formal legal training or qualifications, they are still more educated and more experienced than most rural citizens.

The spread of barefoot attorneys in China is due in part to a provision in Chinese law that allows those affected to either represent themselves or select an unpaid representative to defend them in court, although these elected representatives need not be licensed attorneys.

job

Barefoot lawyers are known for taking on controversial or politically sensitive cases, such as the fight against illegal land expropriations, corruption and abuse of power or environmental disputes. In many of these cases, licensed lawyers and legal assistants are unwilling to accept such cases as they could lead to personal reprisals. Several barefoot lawyers therefore identify closely with the Weiquan movement .

Notable cases taken by Weiquan attorneys include Chen Guangcheng's efforts in 2000 when he mobilized 79 villages in his native Shandong Province to petition a paper mill. This had polluted a river, killing wildlife and making grain unusable. His efforts were successful and led to the closure of the paper mill. Chen later received international recognition for instituting a class action lawsuit against staff at a family planning clinic in Shandong Province. These are reported to have forced thousands of people to undergo sterilization or to terminate pregnancies. Another case was published by Newsweek in which barefoot attorneys involved petitioned authorities to seek compensation for villagers who had previously been beaten by local government officials over a tax dispute.

In addition to litigation in court, barefoot attorneys also perform a range of other services, such as organizing citizens to petition authorities. A survey in rural Henan Province found that between 2001 and 2004, barefoot attorneys took over more cases than licensed attorneys. Barefoot attorneys and "legal workers" across China also provide more legal services and process more legal documents than licensed attorneys. In fact, in some areas they litigate more civil cases than lawyers.

reception

Chinese law scholars described barefoot attorneys as people who provide legal services and advice that are largely irreplaceable to attorneys and legal workers. In particular, they provide free access to justice in rural areas and accept administrative cases as well as politically sensitive cases that many other lawyers do not deal with. This, however, drew the disdain of licensed attorneys, as urban areas often experience an excess of licensed attorneys. Many of these lawyers lobbied to limit the activities of legal workers and barefoot attorneys in order to reduce competition. Although alternative legal service providers, such as legal workers and barefoot attorneys, have been encouraged in rural areas to meet unmet demand, they have eventually been scrutinized and investigated by authorities in recent years.

Because of the nature of the cases barefoot lawyers take on, such as corruption of officials, organizing against abuse of power or defending victims of eviction, they are sometimes confronted with reprisals by the authorities. Barefoot attorney Guo Feixiong was sentenced to five years in prison in 2007, tagging the "trial with serious procedural irregularities." Family members said that Guo was tortured, deprived of sleep, and shocked with electric batons while in detention. Chen Guangcheng was sentenced to four years in prison for trying to defend victims of forced sterilization and abortion. After his release, he remained under house arrest.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Melinda Liu, Barefoot lawyers ( Memento August 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Newsweek, March 4, 2002, accessed January 25, 2017
  2. ↑ a b "Walking on Thin Ice," Human Rights Watch, April 28, 2008, accessed January 25, 2017
  3. ↑ Peter Ford, China's blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng, released from prison , The Christian Science Monitor, September 9, 2010, accessed January 25, 2017
  4. ↑ Tim Johnson, In China, lawyers fighting for justice routinely harassed , Knight Ridder Newspapers, McClatchy DC , November 15, 2005, accessed January 25, 2017
  5. ↑ China has more than 143,000 lawyers , People's Daily Online, April 16, 2008, accessed January 15, 2017
  6. ↑ a b c d e Margaret YK Woo, Mary E. Gallagher, Chinese Justice: Civil Dispute Resolution in Contemporary China , Cambridge University Press, April 25, 2011, ISBN 978-1-107-00624-9 , accessed January 25 2017
  7. ↑ a b c d Yves Dezalay, Bryant G. Garth, Lawyers and the Rule of Law in an Era of Globalization , Routledge, March 17, 2011, ISBN 978-0-415-58117-2 , accessed January 25, 2017
  8. ^ A b You-Tien Hsing and Ching Kwan Lee, Reclaiming Chinese Society: The New Social Activism , Routledge, October 31, 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-49139-6 , accessed January 25, 2017
  9. ↑ Ching Kwan Lee, Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt , University of California Press, June 7, 2007, ISBN 978-0-520-25097-0 , accessed January 25, 2017
  10. ↑ a b c Andreas Lorenz, Wen das Raubtier eats , Der Spiegel, September 4, 2006, accessed on January 25, 2017
  11. ↑ Patrick Brown, Butterfly Mind: Revolution, Recovery, and One Reporter's Road to Understanding China , House of Anansi Press, August 2008, ISBN 0-88784-214-3 , accessed January 25, 2017
  12. ^ Joseph Kahn, Advocate for China's Weak Runs Afoul of the Powerful , The New York Times, July 20, 2006, accessed January 25, 2017
  13. ↑ Philip P. Pan, Chinese to Prosecute Peasant Who Resisted One-Child Policy , Washington Post, July 8, 2006, accessed January 25, 2017
  14. ↑ a b Benedikt Voigt, Escape through the night , Der Tagesspiegel, April 30, 2012, accessed on January 25, 2017
  15. ↑ Rights Defender Guo Feixiong Sentenced to 5 years in Prison ( Memento of November 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Human Rights in China, November 13, 2007, accessed on January 25, 2017
  16. Jump up ↑ Zhang Min, Chinese Rights Lawyer Beaten, Staging Hunger Strike in Prison , Radio Free Asia, December 28, 2007, accessed January 25, 2017
  17. ↑ Damian Grammaticas, China activist Chen Guangcheng 'under house arrest' , BBC News, February 10, 2011, accessed January 15, 2017
  18. ↑ The Heroic Struggle of China's Blind “Barefoot Lawyer” Chen , Welt, April 28, 2012, accessed January 25, 2017
  19. ↑ China Human Rights Defender Under House Arrest , Amnesty International, 2010, accessed January 25, 2017