Lawyers' rights to access case files and visit their clients are protected by a set of regulations issued by Beijing on Sunday. But rather than feel relieved, some lawyers said the regulations also contained restrictions on releasing case details to the public. The regulations say procuratorates and courts should allow defence counsels to read case files, safeguarding their "right to know". But the regulations also prohibit lawyers from releasing information contained in the case files. They say the information must not be used for any purpose other than defending the case. It is common for lawyers on the mainland to release legal documents or court materials to the public to call attention to cases, particularly politically charged ones or proceedings in which law enforcement officials are accused of ignoring due process. It is also common for criminal lawyers to talk publicly about their cases even while a trial is under way. Lawyers argue this lets the public better supervise legal departments and helps ensure they do not interfere in the judicial process. Beijing-based criminal lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said the move to restrict the release of case details was intended to fend off public pressure. "We used to disclose misconduct by the legal departments, some of them very absurd, causing great public outrage," he said. A clause in the regulations that used vague terms such as "important information" could be abused, Liu said. Another new restriction was that lawyers would need approval before reading and copying legal files related to state secrets, Shanghai-based lawyer Si Weijiang said. The regulations say prisons should allow defence counsels to meet defendants. In cases where this cannot happen immediately, prisons must explain the delay and ensure the meeting is arranged within 48 hours. "[The new regulation] will give some help to lawyers defending general cases," Liu said. "But there are still plenty of ways to get around them when it comes to sensitive cases." He said in sensitive cases law departments could resort to residential surveillance of suspects, effectively precluding their lawyer from seeing them. The new regulations did nothing to prevent this, he said. Read more: China's top prosecutor's office issues test rules to tackle prolonged detentions