| The legal aid system for the duty lawyer is conceived and designed to carry out the principles of human rights protection.As an important system for protecting rights of defendants in a criminal procedure originating from the United Kingdom,the duty lawyer is now established in many countries around the world.The starting point of this system in China was the pilot work of duty lawyer in Xiuwu County,Henan Province in 2006,with the formal provisions in the newly revised Criminal Procedure Law as an important sign.In 2017,the "Opinions on Carrying out Legal Aid Duty Lawyer Work" carried out,the Supreme People’s Court with the Ministry of Justice carried out a nationwide coverage of lawyers in criminal cases in 2019.The duty lawyer system continues to play its value due to its ability to improve the efficiency of litigation and guarantee that the rights of the parties are not neglected in the confession and punishment procedure.As a supporting system of the leniency system of confession and punishment,it becomes more and more important with the in-depth implementation of the leniency system.In September 2020,the Supreme People’s Court and other state organs formally issued the "Working Methods of Legal Aid Duty Lawyers",which makes an importance for future work on the duty lawyer.In the document,the specific working principles and functions of the system in the future are detailed;in terms of rights,the right to review files and the right to two-way interviews are clarified,and increased presence;improved the supporting measures such as salary and work supervision when the duty lawyers perform their work.As a puzzle system that makes up for the missing parts of entrusted defense and legal aid.The duty lawyer,together with entrusted lawyers and legal aid lawyers,play a key role in the full coverage of lawyers in criminal proceedings.Through these 15 years of development,from regional pilot projects to nationwide coverage,the scope of assistance has also been expanded from pleading guilty and punishing criminal suspects to full legal assistance.However,the development of localization has also exposed some important issues that affect the actual functioning of the duty lawyer.The positioning of this system is still controversial and has not yet reached consensus in the theoretical community;the duty lawyer has added some rights but are still not enough to make them fully exercise of duties;the formalization of witness confession is serious;the practice subsidy level in this industry is low;the work quality supervision system is not perfect,etc.In view of the fact that our country has continuously promulgated judicial documents concerning the duty lawyer in recent years,it shows that Chinese government pays special attention to the practical operation of this system,so it is very urgent to continuously improve the existing problems of this system.Drawing on the relatively mature and favorable experience in the UK,Canada,and Japan,we will improve and perfect it in our country,and propose the following measures: first,explore and determine the legal position of duty lawyers;second,refine the access rights for reviewing documents and increase right of presence;third,smooth the connection system between different lawyer systems;fourth,determine and improve the supporting security system for the duty lawyers,such as qualification access conditions,salary levels,etc.In the end,the duty lawyer can play its value in the current judicial system so that all the prosecutors can obtain the help of lawyers in the criminal procedure and conform to the trend of my country’s judicial system reform. |
