Vice-minister of justice addresses seminar on China's criminal justice reform in new era

A seminar on the development and outlook of China's criminal justice reform in the new era was held in Beijing on Sept 24.

Vice-Minister of Justice Xiong Xuanguo attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

Xiong said that lawyers play an important role in the overall law-based governance and they are important participants in and witness to the reform and development of China's criminal procedures.

It's of great significance to give full play to the role of lawyers in performing their duties in criminal justice activities to further advance criminal justice reform and development and the overall law-based governance.

He underlined that the pilot program of full coverage of legal defense in criminal cases is a major measure to implement President Xi Jinping's instruction on ensuring the people feel fairness and justice in each and every single legal case and strengthening the protection of human rights in criminal justice.

To this end, he urged efforts to deepen the pilot program, striving to achieve full coverage of defense by lawyers at the trial stage by the end of this year. He also suggested conducting a pilot program of the defense provided by lawyers in the review and prosecution stages to protect criminal suspects' legitimate interests and rights, and enhancing the quality of defense to promote the effective coverage of defense by lawyers.

In order to address the inadequacy of lawyer resources, mechanisms for cross-regional flow and dynamic allocation of lawyer resources should be established and optimized, according to him.

He stressed the need to promote the participation of lawyers in the reform of the system of lenient punishment for admission of guilt and acceptance of punishment, and enhancing the legal aid duty lawyer mechanism.

Relevant measures should also be taken to give full play to the role of duty lawyers, strengthen the work coordination between duty and defense lawyers, and protect lawyers' rights to practice, improve relevant guarantee mechanisms and corresponding systems, so as to enhance legal service quality.