CHENGDU, On Aug 14th -- the 8th Forum of Chinese Lawyers was held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Zhao Dacheng, Deputy Minister of Justice, attended the forum and delivered a speech. He called on the Chinese lawyers, as legal workers devoted to socialism with Chinese characteristics, to take a down-to-earth approach in the work, and provide high-quality and efficient legal service to better serve the central government’s decision-making and deployment process related to the goal of “maintaining economic growth, people’s well being and social stability”.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China and the 30th anniversary of the restoration of the lawyer’s system. Mr. Zhao points out that in the past 30 years the cause of the Chinese lawyers has obtained remarkable achievements. The lawyer’s system has been improved, the lawyers’ team has been strengthened and the coverage of lawyers’ services has been expanded. As a result, the role of lawyers has become increasingly prominent, making positive contribution to implementing the basic national policy of governing the state in accordance with law, safeguarding social equity and justice, maintaining social harmony and stability and serving the social and economic development.
Mr. Zhao stresses that development is the top priority of governing and rejuvenating the country and the first essential of the Scientific Outlook on Development. It is the duty and value of all lawyers to serve the sound and rapid social and economic development. The Chinese lawyers should enhance the awareness of scientific development, adhere to the Scientific Outlook on Development as the guiding ideology, raise the strategic awareness to serve China’s social and economic development, adapt themselves to the new requirements of legal service brought by social and economic development, better innovate the service content and improve the service functions by successfully fulfilling the legal affairs involving IPR, environmental protection, scientific and technological innovation, international trade, foreign and overseas investment, infrastructure, financial innovation, the property rights reform in rural areas and the protection of farmers’ rights and interests. By doing so, the lawyers can offer high-quality and efficient legal services for China’s transformation of the mode of economic development and structural adjustment.
Zhao calls for the lawyers to conscientiously put people first, take the improvement of people’s well being as the starting point and objective, put the general public’s worries and difficulties first, positively promote the solution of problems involving people’s interests such as employment, education, medical services, social security and income distribution. They should consciously stick to the fundamental principle of serving the people whole-heartedly, actively handle cases via legal aid, especially the cases related with the disabled, the elderly, the female，the young as well as the low income group, laid-offs and migrant workers returning home to let them feel the warmth of the Party and the government, and share the fruits of reform and development.
Zhao calls on the lawyers to regard the maintenance of social harmony and stability as the primary political task, and endeavor to resolve social conflicts and disputes under the leadership of Party committees and governments. In the meantime, the lawyers should actively participate in and deal with cases of complaint by letters and calls involving laws and litigation, strengthen the coordination with mediation and complaints handling mechanisms so as to put in place diverse dispute resolution mechanisms with Chinese characteristics, and thus promote social harmony and stability.
In closing, Zhao calls on the lawyers to focus on the decisions and deployment made by the CPC Central Committee and the central government, enhance the sense of mission and responsibility to better fulfill the task of lawyers in the new circumstances, honor their own duty, make contributions to upholding social equity and justice as well as social harmony and stability, and promoting relatively rapid yet steady economic growth in order to embrace New China’s 60th birthday with excellent performance.
This forum was themed as “Mission, Responsibility, and Development”. During the two-day meeting, more than 1,400 lawyer representatives from all parts of China, including Hong Kong ,Macao and Taiwan, conducted dialogues and exchanges on topics such as the coordinated development between urban and rural areas and lawyer’s service, management, development, and practices. (By Correspondent Ma Limin and Zhang Liang)
(Source of the Chinese article: Legal Daily 2009/08/14)
