Research On The Mechanism Of Government Purchasing Lawyer Services

Since the reform and opening-up,as a result of China's developing economic level and the awareness of civil rights,the public's demands for government's governance capability is continuously improving.Laws,as an universal rule for safeguarding social fairness and justice and adjusting social order,plays an decisive role in social governance,which in turn promotes the continuous improvement of China's legal system.The government has to participate in the market economy as a social subject,which is the manager of economy and society,in such context,the social functions undertaken by the government are more complex.Therefore,the government's demands for legal services are increasing,which promoting the using social services to establish a legal state,when the staff of the legal departments within the government can not meet the increasing demands of legal services.In 2013,the National Lawyers Association issued the,Guidance Opinions on Promoting the Government's Purchase of Lawyers Service",stating that reform and opening-up in China has achieved world-renowned economic achievements,the construction of the government ruled by law has to keep up with the age to adapt the development of society,which leads to enlarging the range and expanding the extent of legal services.As a result,the implement and improvement of the government's purchase of lawyer services is of particular importance.China's legal services are mainly provided by lawyer.It is well known that the quality of legal services provided by lawyers is determined by professional legal knowledge and legal practice experience.However,due to the rapid development of the lawyer profession in recent years,the quality of instruction varies greatly.The implement and improvement of the purchase program and the mechanism of supervision is necessary to insure quality law services.At present,the Chinese government's purchase of lawyers' services is mostly based on the"Government Procurement Law",which incorporates lawyer services into the government procurement catalogue,and then selects law firms in accordance with the provisions of the Tendering and Bidding Law,but these laws provide only for the purchase of lawyers everywhere.Pointing out the direction does not completely solve the problems that the government has in practice.At present,the government's purchase in law services are mainly referred to the"Government Procurement Law",which includes the lawyer services in government procurement catalogue,and selected under the"Tendering and Bidding Law".However,it only points out the route of the purchase of law services,but can not solve the problems from practice.This paper studies the system of government procurement of legal services using literature survey and field investigation from the perspectives of theory and practice.Since the system of government procurement of legal services is still in the exploratory stage in China,this paper mainly studies the existing problems during government procurement.It is hoped that this study can improve the system and supporting programs for the government to purchase legal services in line with China's national conditions and actual needs.Through the research,it is found that government procurement of legal services will be an inevitable choice in the construction of a socialist country under the rule of law,a society under the rule of law,and a government under the rule of law.At present,there are some problems in government procurement of legal services in China in terms of both government purchasers and service providers.If these problems are not solved,it will hinder the construction of a government under the rule of law and the healthy development of the legal profession.Some ideas on the solutions to these problems are put forward with the hope of helping government departments,law firms and lawyers.This paper is divided into four parts.Part ? defines the concept of government procurement of legal services,analyzes the concept and practical needs of government procurement of legal services,and introduces the advantages and functions of lawyers in providing legal services to the government.Part ? explores the problems existing in the current government procurement of legal services in China from the perspective of purchasers and providers of legal service products,including nonstandard purchasing procedures,unregulated mode for the government to use legal services,lack of operational mechanism for the lawyer industry to serve the government,and imperfect supervision and evaluation mechanism for the government to purchase legal services.Part ? briefly introduces the government procurement of lawyer services in Hong Kong,the United States,the United Kingdom and other regions outside China,and provides some enlightenment on how to improve the government procurement of legal services in China.Part ? puts forward some suggestions on improving the existing system in response to the problems raised in Part II combined with the status quo of government procurement of legal services in China and overseas advanced experience,including standardizing the procedures for government to purchase legal services,establishing scientific use and management mechanisms,establishing and improving the operation mechanism of the lawyer industry to serve the government,and establishing a sound supervision and evaluation mechanism.