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中国民众对法律寄予新期待 2008年07月02日11:11
四
川5•12大地震可能给中国尚在发展中的法制体系带来了始料未及的考验。在此次地震中因校舍坍塌而痛失子女的家长们已经准备好了要求司法介入。家住都江堰市的黄良和（音）在地震中失去了在东汽中学就读的儿子，这位深信校舍质量存在问题的父亲想聘请一位好律师来代理案件，还有其他家长也抱有同样的想法。 
新一代的中国律师通过电视和互联网教育普通民众要行使自己的权利。近来，志愿者在灾民安置点分发了成都市司法局印制的普法手册，向灾民们解释了在起诉那些向数千垮塌校舍颁发建筑质量合格证的政府官员时适用哪些法律条款。 中国律师现在的诉讼范围涵盖了歧视、工作环境恶劣、甚至检查制度等问题，这在从前是人们想都不敢想的。而这些官司有时候能打得赢。 纽约大学法学院教授、中国法律问题专家杰罗姆•科恩(Jerome Cohen)表示，中国的司法体系依然无法良好运转，但人们有理由感到乐观；那些能从法制水平提高中受益的人越来越多，正从社会底层不断涌现。科恩指出，不断壮大的律师队伍正通过指出法制系统中的不规范之处来施加政治变革的压力。 目前中国共有122,000名全职律师，较1997年时的48,000人大幅增长。尽管如此，目前每1万名中国人中律师还不到一人，而在美国，每300人中就有一人是律师。不过这些中国律师正在吸引越来越多的关注。 律师们会在法院门口自我宣传，并发放名片。在与北京市朝阳区法院相邻的狭窄街巷中，小型律师事务所鳞次栉比。它们都是近几年涌现出来的，多是为了满足当事人在最后一刻临时提出的法律服务需求。北京交通事故律师网www.carlawyer.cn的发起人黄海波律师在网上保证，最大限度保护当事人合法权益。 尽管中国的司法系统有这样那样的漏洞，但还是有越来越多的中国人求助于它。2006年时，由律师代理的民事案件数量较2001年增加了54%。那些财力有限的公民也能行使自己的权利：司法部(Ministry of Justice)提供的数据显示，2007年上半年，中国3000余家法律援助机构代理了172,600桩诉讼，较上年同期增加了近40%。 意在规范律师从业标准的《中华人民共和国律师法》已于6月1日开始生效。这部新法赋予了中国律师及当事人一些在美国等地已司空见惯的权利。现在辩护律师可以在无需提前获得司法机关允许的情况下会见当事人，不过后者要先在没有律师在场的情况下接受询问。此外，警察也不能再对律师和当事人之间的会谈进行监控。 
Associated Press
中国律师刘晓原无须在法庭上面对陪审团
国际特赦组织(Amnesty International)等团体对中国政府压制政治案件涉案律师及其他辩护人的行为表示担忧。据一些人估计，已有300名律师被捕，其中一些人是因为人权问题疾呼而身陷囹圄。 不过，中国法律系统的公信力在逐步加强。一些律师根据一部5月1日生效的新法提起了诉讼，根据这部法律，普通公民能够获得更多的政府信息。其中一位律师希望改革劳动改造制度。警方有时会利用这一制度不经正常程序非法拘禁公民。还有一些律师则希望在不触踏政治红线的情况下改进中国的法律体系。 北京律师刘晓原在这方面就很善于搞平衡。这位擅于自我推销的律师不仅撰写点击率很高的博客，还频频在电视节目上露脸，发表自己的法律见解。他说，你不必非要把自己置于死地才能成为一个维权律师；你必须要对自己使用的方法以及接近事实真相的方式十分小心，这就够了。 由于中国没有陪审团制度，刘晓原就在庭审流程上挑毛病，和法官探讨应该如何分析证据及警方呈报证据的方式。他还说，在中国的法庭上律师不会来回走动，而是必须保持坐姿。如果律师站着，法官可能会说他破坏法庭纪律。 在刘晓原胜诉的著名案例中，有一件是为外地来京务工人员家庭争取到更多的死亡赔偿金。2006年，甘肃籍农民李秀能在骑车时被一辆汽车剐倒，司机仅同意向其家人支付17万元人民币的赔偿金（约合25,000美元）。根据北京地方法规的规定，如果是北京当地人发生这种情况，能拿到的赔偿金会高得多。李秀能的家属对这个结果感到很不公。 刘晓原代理了这一案件。他主张李秀能应被视同为北京居民，因为多年来她一直在这个城市工作和生活。法官同意了他的看法，将给予李秀能家人的赔偿金增加到47万元。近几个月来，刘晓原又打赢了几桩类似的外来务工人员死亡诉讼，媒体纷纷欢呼这是“同命同价”的法律新观念的胜利。 在汶川地震造成大批校舍坍塌后，人们对当地政府的怨气不断升温。当地政府表示他们自己正在进行调查，并许诺将在一个月内公布调查结果。家长们表示，他们正在跟律师沟通寻求建议。 成都恒和信律师事务所律师陈霞表示，现在讨论这件事还有点为时过早，不过他们认为未来几个月会有越来越多的诉讼。陈霞表示，等余震平息、条件改善后，事务所可能会派律师到灾区提供现场法律援助。 刘晓原表示他也准备参与法律援助。他说，只要灾区有孩子家长联系到他，他肯定会依法代理他们的案件。刘晓原说，这是律师的天职。 Geoffrey A. Fowler / Sky Canaves / Juliet Ye
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本栏目文字内容归道琼斯公司所有，任何单位及个人未经许可，不得擅自转载使用
Copyright 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Parents in Sichuan whose children were killed when schools collapsed in the May 12 quake are already demanding justice. Huang Lianghe, who lost his son in the collapse of the Dongqi Middle School in Dujiangyan, believes the quality of the school's construction was at fault and, with other parents, is looking for a good lawyer to take up his cause. That Mr. Huang has that much faith in China's courts says much about rising expectations that ordinary Chinese enjoy basic legal rights, including the right to sue their government. On television and the Internet, a new generation of Chinese lawyers teaches ordinary Chinese people to invoke their rights. At camps for survivors of the quake, volunteers recently distributed 'law promotion' handbooks published by the Chengdu Justice Bureau that explain the laws that victims can use to sue government officials for certifying the building codes for thousands of classrooms that crumbled in the quake. China's lawyers are filing lawsuits over discrimination, poor labor conditions, even censorship -- actions once considered unthinkable. And sometimes they win. China's legal system still doesn't work well, but there's reason for optimism, says Jerome Cohen, a professor at the New York University School of Law and an expert on Chinese law. 'People who have an interest in seeing the rule of law increasingly implemented . . . are bubbling up from the bottom,' he says. A growing army of lawyers is creating pressure for political change simply by airing the irregularities in the system, Mr. Cohen says. Today, China has 122,000 full-time lawyers, up from 48,000 in 1997. That is still less than one lawyer for every 10,000 Chinese citizens, compared to about one in 300 in the U.S. But those lawyers are gaining in visibility. Lawyers advertise and hand out business cards at courthouses. The narrow lane next to Beijing's Chaoyang District courthouse is crammed with small law offices that have sprung up in recent years to help with last-minute legal needs. On www.carlawyer.cn, traffic-accident expert Huang Haibo promises, 'I will protect your legal rights.' Despite the legal system's flaws, Chinese people are increasingly turning to it for help. The number of civil cases filed by Chinese lawyers in 2006 was up 54% from 2001. Citizens with limited financial resources have taken to suing: In the first six months of 2007, China's 3,000-plus legal-aid centers handled 172,600 cases, a jump of nearly 40% from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Justice. On June 1, new legislation took effect aimed at overhauling how the profession is practiced here. Lawyers and their clients gained some rights long taken for granted in the U.S. and elsewhere. Defense lawyers are now allowed to meet with clients without first seeking permission from judicial authorities, although only after the clients have been interrogated without lawyers present. Police will no longer be allowed to monitor conversations between lawyers and clients. Some Chinese lawyers and academics had hoped for greater change than the new law delivers. The nation's justice system remains a far cry from what exists in many Western countries, especially when it comes to taking on the government itself. Chinese courts aren't independent of the ruling Communist Party and often refuse to hear politically sensitive cases. There are no juries. Amnesty International and other groups have expressed concern about a crackdown on lawyers and other rights defenders who take up politically charged causes. By some estimates, as many as 300 lawyers have been jailed, some of them for speaking out on human rights. Still, the system's credibility is growing. Several lawyers recently filed suits that test a law, which took effect May 1, that promises ordinary citizens greater access to government information. One is hoping to expose police 're-education through labor' practices, sometimes used to detain people without due process. Some lawyers manage to work China's legal system while skirting the political fault lines. One of the most adept at that balancing act is Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer with a knack for self-promotion who writes a popular blog and often appears on TV offering his legal opinions. 'You don't have to kill yourself to be a rights lawyer,' Mr. Liu says. 'You just have to be careful about the methods you use and the way you approach the truth.' Unable to play to a jury, Mr. Liu nitpicks court procedure, appealing to judges about the way they consider evidence and how the police present it. In addition, in Chinese courts 'you don't move around continuously -- a lawyer must stay seated,' he explains. If he stood, 'the judge could say that it was a breach of courtroom discipline.' In one of his biggest victories, Mr. Liu secured bigger payouts for the families of migrant workers killed in accidents. In 2006, he agreed to represent the family of Li Xiuneng, a migrant worker born in China's far-western Gansu province, who was killed by a car while riding her bicycle in Beijing. The driver offered her family wrongful-death compensation of 170,000 yuan, or about $25,000. That is far less than would go to the family of a victim born in Beijing, under local rules. The Li family felt cheated. Mr. Liu argued that Ms. Li should be counted as a Beijing resident, since she had worked and lived in the city for years. A judge agreed, boosting the award for Ms. Li's family to 470,000 yuan. In recent months, Mr. Liu has won several similar migrant-death cases, which the news media have hailed as a victory for a new legal concept: 'same life, same price.' Complaints are already mounting against local government officials in Sichuan over the large number of schools that collapsed during the earthquake. Local authorities say they are conducting their own investigations and have promised to report their findings within a month. Parents say they are talking to lawyers and seeking advice. 'It's still a bit early, but we expect to see a growing number of lawsuits in the coming months,' says Chen Xia, a lawyer at the Henghexin law firm in Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu. Ms. Chen says her firm is likely to send lawyers into the field to offer legal aid once aftershocks subside and conditions improve. Mr. Liu says he is ready to help, too. 'If approached by any parent from that area, I will definitely take the case in accordance with the law,' he says. 'This is the lawyer's duty.' Geoffrey A. Fowler / Sky Canaves / Juliet Ye
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