Rule Of Law In China: Progress And Problems. Lin Li

the facts rather than applying the law”. (2) “We need to create mechanisms that keep the judiciary “in the sunshine”, making it open, dynamic, transparent, and convenient for the public to access … We need to ensure to establish a system for posting all effective legal instruments online for public inquiry”.

      Sixth, providing stronger judicial protection of human rights. (1) “We need to improve the system of laws that ensure implementation of legal principles, including the principles that punishable offenses must be codified in law; that there should be no punishment in cases where there is doubt over guilt; and that evidence obtained illegally must be excluded”. We need to take effective measures to solve the difficulties in enforcing the law, formulate a compulsory enforcement law, and standardize the judicial procedures of seizing, sequestrating, freezing, and handling assets involved in cases. (3) We need to implement the systems of final judgment and termination of litigation; regarding complaints filed through letters or visits, we need to ensure those related to litigation are filed and handled separately from other complaints; and ensure the litigant’s right to appeal according to law are protected.

      Seventh, tightening supervision over judicial activities. (1) The people’s supervisor system needs to be improved. Media coverage of cases needs to be standardized to prevent public opinion from affecting judicial fairness. (2) We need to standardize the contact and association between judicial personnel and parties, lawyers, specifically-related persons, and intermediary organizations according to law. (3) We need to resolutely break all kinds of unspoken rules, must not allow extrajudicial mercy, must not allow relations cases, favor cases, and money cases.

      1.2.4.5. Part 5: Strengthening everyone’s awareness of the rule of law and building a rule-of-law society. This mainly includes: First, innovation of the concept and basic ideas—The authority of the law stems from people’s heartfelt support for and sincere faith in it. The people’s rights and interests need to be safeguarded by the law and the authority of the law needs to be upheld by the people. We must carry forward the spirit of socialist rule of law and foster a socialist rule-of-law culture, arouse greater enthusiasm and initiative among all members of society for putting the rule of law into practice, and create an atmosphere in which it is honorable to abide by the law, and disgraceful to break the law, so that all the people will become faithful advocators, conscientious observers, and strong defenders of socialist rule of law.

      Second, helping all of society to foster awareness of the rule of law. We need to guide all the people to observe the law consciously, look to the law if they meet with difficulties, and rely on the law to resolve their problems. We need to improve the system for government employees to learn and apply the law, and include the Constitution and other laws within the content studied by central groups of Party committees (leading Party member groups) and make them the substance of compulsory courses at Party schools, institutes of socialism, academies of governance, and executive leadership academies. The education of the rule of law should be added in the national education system starting with the youth by putting into place courses on the rule of law at primary and secondary schools. (2) We need to improve the mechanism for promoting publicity for and education on legal knowledge. We need to incorporate the education on the rule of law into our initiatives of cultural and ethical progress, carry out activities among the public to foster a rule-of-law culture, improve the system by which the media popularizes the legal knowledge for public interest, draw increasingly on new media and new technology in these initiatives, and improve the effectiveness of legal literacy. (3) We need to increase public integrity, improve the recording of information about the citizens’ and organizations’ compliance with the law and credibility, and refine mechanisms that reward those who obey the law and are credible and punish those who break the law and lack credibility so that all the people consciously respect and abide by the law. (4) We need to strengthen the building of civic morality and give play to the role of the rule of law in solving prominent problems in the field of morality.

      Third, advancing law-based governance at multiple levels and in multiple areas. (1) We need to remain committed to practicing governance that is systemic, law-based, and comprehensive and directed at the root of problems that it seeks to address, and increase the level of legalization of social governance. (2) We need to encourage people’s organizations and social organizations to help build a society ruled by law. We need to encourage social organizations to guide the behavior of their members, subject them to rules, and safeguard their rights and interests. (3) We need to handle appropriately social issues involving ethnic groups and religion on the basis of law and promote harmony in relations among ethnic groups and among religions.

      Fourth, establishing a complete system of legal services. (1) We will move forward with the development of the public legal service system that covers both urban and rural populations, and provide better legal services in the fields that pertain to the well-being of the people. (2) We need to improve lawyers, public notarization, and other legal services, as well as the system for integrated management of forensic evidence.

      Fifth, improving the mechanism for people to defend their rights and resolve their disputes according to the law. (1) We will strengthen the authority of the law in safeguarding the people’s rights and interests and resolving social disputes. (2) We will bring the handling of complaints expressed through letters or visits into line with the rule of law, and make sure that people’s rational and legitimate demands can be met in accordance with the law and due procedures. (3) We need to improve the mechanism for preventing and handling social problems and disputes, and for resolving disputes through the well-coordinated and combined use of multiple means. We will improve the system for coordinating people’s mediation, administrative mediation, and judicial mediation. We need to refine the arbitration system and ensure that improves the system for administrative adjudication. (4) We will intensify efforts to strengthen the comprehensive maintenance of law and order, and implement the system of holding leaders responsible for work in this area.

      1.2.4.6. Part 6: Strengthening efforts to develop a rule-of-law workforce. This mainly includes: First, innovation of concept and basic ideas—To comprehensively advance the law-based governance of the country, we must channel great energy into strengthening the political integrity, professional competence, and ethical standards of the rule-of-law workforce, and developing a workforce that is devoted to the socialist rule of law and loyal to the Party, the country, the people, and the law, and thus provide firm organizational and human resource guarantees for more quickly developing a socialist rule-of-law country.

      Second, building a workforce of highly competent rule-of-law professionals. (1) We will strengthen the workforce of people working in legislation, administrative enforcement of law, and the judiciary by giving top priority to strengthening their political integrity. We will open channels for the legislature, the law enforcement authorities, and the judiciary to transfer their officials and personnel among themselves, and to give a place to eligible officials and personnel from other sectors. (2) We will increase the levels of regularization, specialization, and professionalization among rule-of-law professionals, and improve their professional qualities and competence. We will improve the system for certifying legal professionals and the standardized national qualification exam system for the legal profession, and establish a unified pre-job training system for legal career professionals. We will put in place a system for recruiting eligible lawyers and legal experts into the ranks of legislators, judges, and public procurators; keep open channels through which qualified demobilized officers become professionals; and build a more standardized and convenient mechanism for recruiting law graduates. (3) We will establish a process for selecting judges and public procurators level by level.

      Third, strengthening the workforce of legal service workers. (1) We need to improve the professional qualities of lawyers and refine the mechanisms for protecting them at work. (2) Public sector lawyers will be put in place at all Party and government offices at all levels and people’s organizations, and businesses may put in place corporate lawyers. (3) Efforts will be made to develop a workforce of public notaries, community-level legal service workers, and people’s mediators, and impetus will be given to building a workforce of legal service volunteers.

      Fourth, making innovations in the mechanisms for training rule-oflaw talents. (1) We need to ensure that the Marxist thinking on law and the theory of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics prevail