Access to Justice
Bill Savadove of the South China Morning Post reports that dissident Li Guotao has been put under house arrest. Li hoped to use the week during which the plenary meeting of the 16th CCP Congress is taking place in Beijing to gather support for his effort to abolish the system of reeducation through labor. In response, the Shanghai police searched his house, confiscated his computer, and detained him for seven hours in the local police station. Li is now under house arrest. Li was one of the original founders of the China Democracy Party, as well as the Association for Human Rights and has in the past served seven years in the reeducation through labor system for these activities. Savadove reports that the accusation against Li is: "disseminating inappropriate opinions during a special time".
Reporting on the interactions between the local court and the Communist Party committee in one Henan county, the Xin Jing Bao noted that every year, the local court reports on key projects to be undertaken during the year, seeking Party assistance in resolving outstanding problems. In 2002 and 2003, pursuant to court requests, the Party committee increased hiring allotments for court judicial and enforcement personnel. This year, judicial complaints led to local Party and government officials approving allocations of additional land for construction of new court buildings. Although Chinese courts are increasingly able to decide most ordinary legal cases without external political intervention, the Party continues to wield power over judicial operations, particularly personnel issues. This exercise of power reduces judicial independence by making the Chinese judiciary dependent on Party leaders for career and institutional development.
According to a story carried in the Beijing News (Xinjing Bao), a recently released legislative draft proposal by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences would expand the ability of Chinese citizens to sue the PRC government under the Administrative Litigation Law. Drafters of the proposal included staff members from the legal affairs offices of the National People's Congress and the State Council. The extent to which these proposals will be implemented into law remains an open question.
The Administrative Litigation Law (ALL) currently allows Chinese plaintiffs to challenge only "concrete" acts of government organs that have been explicitly authorized by law or regulation. In practice, this has meant many internal government directives (such as those with a broader regulatory scope) as well as the actions of certain government actors (such as village residence committees or public schools) are exempt from legal challenges.
Radio Free Asia reports that around 300 residents of Sanshan village near Panyu city stormed their local Party committee offices and took the Party secretary hostage, after a sit-in with banners outside the building failed to produce the result they wanted. They said they wanted a clear explanation of the transfer of their farmland to a large industrial company.
Introduction
Recent years have witnessed the development of a national Chinese legal aid system. This system has significantly increased the ability of Chinese citizens to rely on the legal system, and generally promoted the development of rule of law in China. However, lack of funding for legal aid remains a system-wide weakness. Furthermore, eligibility restrictions limit the ability of a particularly needy group, migrant workers, to receive legal aid.
The following text was retrieved from the Lawtime.cn Web site on March 27, 2013.