On The Duty Of China's Legal Aid Lawyer

In China, legal aid is a legal obligation of lawyers, and lawyers are the most important actors for the implementation of the legal aid system. In practice, since establishment of the system in china, lawyers have dealt with most of the legal aid cases. However, there is a concern that the quality of the legal aid provided by lawyers is often poor. Legal aid is a social welfare project protecting the poor and disadvantaged group. But if the quality of the service cannot be guaranteed, the legal principle of equality before the law cannot be achieved either. Meanwhile, it is likely to exhaust the final judicial protecting procedure for the right holders. It will result in the violation of the rights of them for the second time. Quality is the core content of the legal aid, so it is quite necessary to guarantee the quality of lawyers' legal service.Causes analyses may introduce solution to the problem. Reviewing the current Chinese legal system and judicial practice, it is not difficult to find that the root of the Lawyers' lower desire to take active part in the service is that the legal aid obligation cannot be put upon the lawyers so much simply. According to Chinese law and experiences of other countries and reagions, legal aid is the duty of the government. Article 34 of the Criminal Procedural Law of the People's Republic of China clearly states that the lawyers have the obligation to provide legal service to the the person according to the appointment of a court. And the Legal Aid Regulation promulgated in 2003 provides an obligation for the supply of legal aid for lawyers. While it is also clear that Article 3 of the Regulation says that "Legal aid is a governmental responsibility". This is a significant improvement. However, no matter the Legal Aid Regulation, or other laws and judicial policy documents, the government's obligation always be mentioned simply, but the lawyers' obligation is emphasized simply too. But, they cannot help much. We can see it the most realistic criticism for the legal aid system. In theory, according to the nature of the lawyer system, the legal aid system, international law and the jurisprudence, lawyers cannot be simply demanded to provide legal aid.The basic proposal to improve the quality of the legal aid system is to make it clear that the State take a leading role to assume the responsibility of legal aid. The government should input more material and human resources, and the lawyers are not the sole and direct obligation bearers . Meanwhile, lawyers, social organizations , and other actors of the society should also pay more attention and provide more support to the legal aid cause. Only in this way can we help it step on a new stage of development, and ultimately achieve the purposes of justice and fairness. Legal aid is a State responsibility, and the whole society's public welfare as well. Only positively joined by every party in the society, can we achieve the realization of the qualitative and quantitative goals of the of the legal aid system.