| As an important part of Litigation System, Legal Aid System plays a vital role in the process of China’s completion of legal systems. The development, value, present situation and existing problems of Legal Aid System will be discussed in the thesis. The thesis is in four parts. Part I: Summary of Legal Aid System. From taking an early form in 1979, to the publication of Litigation Fees For The People’s Court in 1989 and the approval of Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Legal Aid to the Parties with Economic Difficulties in the 1122 nd meeting of the judicial committee of the Supreme People’s Court on July 12 th, 2000, Legal Aid has always been provided by reducing and exempting litigation fees or extend its payment period. Part II: Value of Legal Aid System. Part III: Advantages and problems of present Legal Aid System. 1.Advantages: Assistance to Criminal Litigation and Implementation are included in Legal Aid. Concerning the assisted parties, originally, the beneficiaries were the parties who are unable to afford for litigation fees, but now the following parties can also benefit from the Legal Aid System: parties involved and litigant participants who are in economic troubles due to infringement on their rights and benefits, such as witnesses, surveyors, revelators as well as immediate family of the victims in criminal cases; victims and their immediate family, execution applicants of alimony, child maintenance and support; parties who are infringed in traffic accident but have not been compensated. With reference to assistance conditions, case condition is added to the original economic condition. As per the assistance funds, the government is the main provider and calls for the participation of the society. Every level of government is required to “conclude Legal Aid in budget, make comprehensive arrangement and establish dynamic adjustment mechanism.” “The Central Finance Department should transfer the funds through Legal Department to offer appropriate subsidies to Legal Aid Funds for local governments” With the special fund subsidies, the offer of Legal Aid fees is guaranteed. Detailed rules have been stipulated for the funds management. After application, the applicant should report the details of the legal aid fees expenditure to the Legal Aid Leading Team and accept audit and supervision. For the funds donated by the society, the donator should get informed of the party who use the fund. That means the beneficiary should accept both the supervision of the audit department, the prosecution department and that of the society. 2.Problems:(1) The legislation of Legal Aid System still lags behind other legal systems and is of low legal hierarchy;(2)Economic conditions in Legal Aid conditions are still vague.(3) Incompleteness in supervision and judgment results in the absence of rules dealing with the parties who are against the judgment in the Legal Aid System. Besides, the supervision is not strict enough.(4)The present system does not deal with subsequent problems after legal aid. It just provides aid but cannot fundamentally solve economic problems of the parties involved. Part IV: To complete the Legal Aid System, the author suggests as follows: 1. Legal aid conditions should be concrete, namely the standards of the legal aid should be defined. The aid to litigation fees may be referred to the model of “disposable income + disposable property” adopted in Britain. Economic conditions before and after infringement should be examined with regard to criminal litigation aid. Decision for the application for medical aid should be prompt.2. Complete the systems of legal aid and supervision to deal with the disagreement on application decision. Specific institute should be set up or specific personnel should be arranged to inform the applicant of the result for legal aid application. The applicant can apply for a reexamination to Legal Aid Leading Team within 10 days after obtaining the result. Besides, supervision departments including discipline inspection team and supervision team can also examine the application for legal aid. They may require the applicant to provide explanation to their application which is not conformed to the conditions and make decisions accordingly. The higher legal department has the supervision right on the lower ones. Legal Aid Leading Team has the supervision right on legal departments within its jurisdiction.3. Integrate with the social aid and solve subsequent problems after legal aid. Legal aid can be integrated with civil departments, communities, enterprises and medical institutes and help applicants to acquire subsistence allowances in order to guarantee a stable income after legal aid. The beneficiaries may also receive career advice and job opportunities. Psychological counseling for criminal victims should be arranged.4. Postpone legal aid to petitioners who do not accept the judgment of the court. It is not proper to provide these petitioners with legal aid or else the legal authority may be weakened. Disagreement with the judgment should be solved with law. |
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