Chinese beginning to sue

The story appeared in today's Wall Street Journal. In the past, Chinese culture did not include the use of attorneys. Undoubtedly most disputes are still settled within the community.

Although there are only a limited number of attorneys in China, the ratio of 1 attorney for every 10, 650 people is a huge increase from the past. As a point of comparison in America there is an attorney for every 270 people. In 1997 there were only 48,000 attorneys in China and now there are 122,000 and that number is growing as more finish the required program. There was a 54% increase in the number of civil cases in China from 2001 -- 2006. There is a legal aid center which saw a 40% increase in the first half of 2007 compared to 2006.

Following the recent earthquake that took the lives of many children whose school collapsed, parents are seeking to sue the government for certifying the building codes in schools which crumbled in the quake. This would have been unheard of not many years ago.

There are no juries in China and lawyers must sit to present their case. Effective June 1 new legislation went into effect that granted the Chinese some rights that we in the Western world take for granted. Defense lawyers no longer need permission from judicial authorities to see their clients. Police can no longer monitor attorney-client conversations. But the Chinese system has a long way to go before the rights granted to those in Western countries have any equality.

Courts refuse to hear politically sensitive cases and there appears to be no definitive definition of exactly what a politically sensitive case entails. It is claimed that as many as 300 lawyers have been jailed for speaking out about human rights or other sensitive issues.

Slowly but surely it appears as if the rule of law is beginning to sprout in China.