Research Report On The Participation Of Attorneys During The Prosecution Phrase

In the stage of review and prosecution attorneys’ participation is important to theprotection of the lawful right and interest of the accused, and finally is crucial to therealization of justice. In this paper, author conducts a research on the participation of attorneysin the stage of review and prosecution in a grass-root level procuratorate in Chongqing from2008to2010, examines the overview of the attorneys’ participation, the protection of thevarious rights of attorneys, and the performance of attorneys, and the relationship betweenattorneys and the procuratorate, and after that discusses the existing problems and causes,finally offers her advice on how to perfect the system.This paper, about15,000words, falls into three parts: the introduction, main body andconclusion. The main body is divided into four chapters.Chapter I introduces the overview of attorneys’ participation. We find that, the proportionof attorneys’ participation in the stage of review and prosecution is not satisfactory. And manyattorneys are mandated through the arrangement of contract, and only30%attorneysintervene in criminal cases in the investigation stage for the first time. Most of the casesattorneys intervene in are the cases in violation of social orders, embezzlement, bribery andmisfeasance. Some attorneys also intervene in other kinds of cases; however, the proportion ismuch smaller.Chapter II discusses the basic situation of the exercising of their lawful rights andperformance of duties after their participation in the stage of review and prosecution. Through this research, we find that, access to the documents and access to the accused are basicallyprotected. However, we also find that the duties on attorneys are relatively heavy and legalrisks are somewhat high. The freedom of correspondence and the right of investigation arehard to realize. And the opinions of attorneys are hard to be accepted by the procuratorate.Chapter III elaborates the existing problems and causes. We find that many problemsexist: the proportion of attorneys’ participation is not so high and the legal aid is not soaccessible for the accused. The communication between attorneys and prosecutors is not sosmooth and the quality of attorneys needs to be improved. And in extreme cases, someattorneys even violate laws. The causes can be traced to the following: the level of economicdevelopment, the present legal system, the setting of rights and responsibilities, publicappraisal and personal quality and etc.Chapter IV offers the advice on the perfection of attorneys’ participation in the stage ofreview and prosecution. To solve the present problems, author put forward the followingadvice: allow more attorneys’ participation, safeguard attorneys’ lawful rights, perfect thecommunication system between attorneys and prosecutors and etc. these advice involve theperfection of legal environment, improvement of the public’s legal awareness, perfection oflegal aid system, the performance of the prosecutors’ duties and creation of the evidencediscovery system and etc.