Explainer | What difference will China’s new legal aid law make for its citizens?
- The new legislation, to come into effect in January, is touted as another major step towards China becoming a rule-of-law country by 2035
- It expands the types of eligible cases and seeks to improve pay for lawyers but local authorities will be able to rule on how legal aid will be granted
What is legal aid?
The government gives legal aid to people involved in disputes so they can consult a lawyer or be represented free of charge. In China, pro bono legal services provided to the needy are also part of the legal aid system.
More than 2.16 million people received legal aid in nearly 1.4 million cases in 2020, according to the Ministry of Justice. The semi-official legal system blue book said 2.65 billion yuan (US$409 million) was spent on legal aid in 2018, the most recent year with data available.
Under the new law, services such as legal consultation, the drafting of legal documents, duty lawyers, representation in cases, labour arbitration and mediation will be paid for by legal aid centres set up by the justice departments of central and local governments.
Why did China introduce the Legal Aid Law?
Legal aid in China was not widely available until 1996, and even then people could only request that the government pay for lawyers in certain cases, such as those involving crime, work injury and survivors’ benefits. Courts also provided minors and people with disabilities with duty lawyers.
The existing legal aid system, introduced in 2003, does not address the lack of lawyers in central and western China, limited aid coverage and increasing demand for legal services, according to the NPC Supervisory and Judicial Affairs Committee, which drafted the law.