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White paper on political democracy (full text)
(china.org.cn)
Updated: 2005-10-19 11:01 - System of people's jurors. After New China was founded
in 1949, the state prescribed the system of people's jurors in relevant laws,
and made detailed provisions for such a system in the Organization Law of
People's Courts and other laws enacted later. The Decision on Improving the
System of People's Jurors, adopted by the NPC Standing Committee in August 2004,
clearly states the scope of trials in which jurors could participate, as well as
the qualifications and selection, and rights and obligations of jurors. In line
with the law and relevant provisions, the people's courts implement the system
of people's jurors in earnest to ensure people's direct participation in and
supervision of judicial activities.
- System of people's supervisors. Adopting the system of
people's supervisors and placing procuratorial work under the effective
supervision of the people embody the requirements of lawsuit democracy. Since
October 2003, the procuratorial organs began to try out the system of people's
supervisors in 10 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly
under the central government. Later, this system was spread to 86 percent of all
procuratorates nationwide. People's supervisors are selected at the
recommendation of various organs, groups, institutions and enterprises, with
such major duties as conducting independent appraisals and submitting
supervisory comments on cases the procuratorial organs have directly placed on
file for investigation but have later decided to withdraw or halt the
prosecution of, and in cases of refusal to submit to arrest. They can also
participate, upon invitation, in other law-enforcement examination activities
organized by the people's procuratorates regarding crimes committed by civil
servants, and make suggestions and comments on violations of law and discipline
discovered. By the end of 2004, a total of 18,962 people's supervisors had been
selected, who had supervised the conclusion of 3,341 cases.
- System of lawyers. The Lawyers Law, promulgated in
1996, initially established the basic framework of a system of lawyers with
Chinese characteristics, and it contains provisions on the rights and
obligations of lawyers in the course of judicial and administrative procedures,
and other social activities. By the end of 2004, there were 118,000 certified
lawyers and 11,691 law firms in China; the unitary state law firms had been
replaced by the coexistence of a multiple variety of law firms, including
partnership law firms, state law firms and cooperative law firms, with the
partnership law firms accounting for 68.6 percent of the total. In addition, 148
foreign law firms from 17 countries had been allowed to establish offices that
are allowed to operate within the boundaries of China, and the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region had established 48 law offices on the mainland of China.
In 2004, lawyers throughout the country handled over 1.5 million lawsuits and
more than 800,000 non-lawsuit cases. The establishment and improvement of the
system of lawyers enable the lawyers to make use of legal means to protect the
rights and interests of the litigants, and ensure correct application of law and
social fairness and justice.
- System of legal assistance. Legal assistance is a key
measure to guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of the disadvantaged
groups and achieve judicial justice. Since 1994, China has explored the building
of a legal assistance system with Chinese characteristics. Provisions on the
status of the system are stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Law, the Lawyers
Law and other laws. The Regulations on Legal Assistance, which came into effect
in September 2003, set the basic framework for the system. By the end of 2004,
some 3,023 government-sponsored legal assistance organs had been set up across
the country, including 2,628 at county and district level, thus initially
forming a basic network giving access to people with various difficulties in
both urban and rural areas. Nationwide, some 10,458 persons are designated to
provide legal assistance, of whom 4,768 are professional lawyers. Input of funds
for legal assistance from the treasuries of governments at various levels has
increased year by year, up from 18.69 million yuan in 1999 to 217.12 million
yuan in 2004, representing an annual average growth of 212 percent. Over the
past decade, legal assistance organizations throughout the country have
organized lawyers, grassroots legal service workers and volunteers to handle
some 1.1 million legal assistance cases, providing such services to more than
1.6 million people. In recent years, many social groups, NGOs and institutions
of higher learning have also participated in legal assistance work.
- System of people's mediation. By people's mediation,
it means to, under the guidance of people's mediation committees established in
accordance with the law, on the basis of voluntariness from the parties to a
dispute and taking the state laws, regulations, rules, policies and social
morality as the yardstick, help the parties to a dispute to reach an agreement
by way of ample reasoning and patient persuasion. To date, over 860,000 people's
mediation committees have been established nationwide. Manned by 6.6 million
people's mediators, they provide mediation services to about 6 million civil
disputes of various kinds, and the rate of success exceeded 95 percent.
To further meet the demands for rule of the country by
law and building a harmonious socialist society, China is, in accordance with
the requirements of judicial justice and strict enforcement of law, improving
the establishment of judicial organs, the delimitation of their functions and
powers and their management systems, in the hope of establishing a better
judicial system that features clearly specified powers and responsibilities,
mutual coordination and restraint, and highly efficient operation, so as to
ensure, institutionally, that the judicial and procuratorial organs exercise
adjudicative power and procuratorial power independently and impartially in
accordance with the law, better safeguard the judicial authority, safeguard the
democratic rights as well as legitimate rights and interests of the people and
maintain fairness and justice for the society.
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