China Voice: Rule of law requires law-abiding lawyers, not "activists"

Preventing the abuse of the law is as important as enforcement. That's why China, which is working hard to improve its legal system, must lock up lawyers who break their vows.

Western media and critics have focused on the recent arrest of several lawyers and their assistants in China.

There are various interpretations of the so-called "crackdown" in which the suspects have been portrayed as rights activists and victims. But the most straightforward reason has been conveniently left out. That is, lawyers or not, they are suspected of breaking certain laws.

In the available police accounts of what the suspects did, there was one particularly disturbing thing: the lawyers were suspected of sponsoring and organizing protests supporting their clients, often outside the courtroom and on social media, during the course of their trials.

Participants in the protests were allegedly paid and Internet campaigns were carefully planned and carried out from the time they took up a sensitive case.

Even from a layman's perspective, such conduct is very close to blackmailing a court into a favorable verdict through the pressure of media and public opinion.

In the common law system, members of the jury are isolated during the trial to prevent media reports and other sources of information from clouding their judgement. In the Chinese legal system, a judge or a judge panel is solely responsible for the verdict. Unlike juries, they are not in a confined environment but rather are exposed to large crowds of shouting and angry people outside their offices or aggressive attacks on their social media accounts.

Such attacks have reached the point of humiliation and threats. According to the police, Zhou Shifeng, chief of the Beijing-based Fengrui Law Firm, and close assistant Wu Gan once hosted a funeral ceremony for a living judge at the front gate of a court. Both are in custody now. In other cases, they encouraged netizens to publish personal information of judges and police officers involved and even reported them to anti-graft agencies under false allegations.

No effective legal system will tolerate interference in justice, no matter if by the privileged or the public. These lawyers should know the boundary of the law better than others, and yet they decided to cross it.

The purpose of lawyers is to protect rights. But lawyers have to do it inside the courtroom rather than on the street. Only when a client's rights are defended legally do lawyers safeguard and contribute to the rule of law. Otherwise, they are as guilty as any other offenders.

China's legal system has weaknesses and loopholes that are being addressed through a comprehensive reform. How lawyers behave under such a system defines whether they are true believers in the law.

They can use the system's weakness as an excuse to resort to illegal means or push for its improvement through righteous means. The lawyers and assistants in custody appear to have chosen the former.

It goes without saying that they should be subject to law and be punished if proven guilty. More importantly, this will send an encouraging message to lawyers who are loyal to their profession and a strong warning to those who might try to cross the line.

Among the 270,000 lawyers in China, the good outnumber the bad. The country will still count on these professionals to implement the law, safeguard the legal system and work with others to realize the rule of law. Endi