Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m M A R C H 2 0 1 8 17 and the power of the Communist Party are supreme. The purpose of any part of the legal system, including the civil and commercial bar, is to buttress that power. Veteran China watcher Jerome Cohen has written recently, "In prin- ciple the party controls the legal system at every level; the central political-legal commission, which operates on behalf of the party central committee and its politburo leaders, tells every legal insti- tution what to do." The Chinese legal system is as different from Canada's and those of other western democracies as it could be. In Canada, a principal func- tion of legal institutions is not to serve the state and the government but to protect the citizenry from them. The Chinese legal system is, at bot- tom, primitive and corrupt. The Decem- ber 2015 United Nations report on China's compliance with the Conven- tion against Torture enumerated a very long list of abuses within the Chinese legal system when it comes to adminis- trative and criminal matters, including the use of torture, excessive length of detention before any court appearance, restrictions on rights to legal repre- sentation and residential surveillance amounting to incommunicado deten- tion. The report's most damming find- ing was escalating abuse of lawyers for carrying out their professional respon- sibilities mainly, but not exclusively, in human rights matters. "Such abus- es include detention on suspicion of broadly defined charges, such as 'pick- ing quarrels and provoking trouble,' and ill treatment and torture while in detention. Other interferences with the legal profession have been, reportedly, the refusal of annual re-registration, the revocation of lawyers' licences and evic- tions from courtrooms on questionable grounds. . . . The Committee expresses concern at the all-inclusive category of 'other conduct that disrupts court order' in various articles of the Law on Lawyers, the Criminal Procedure Law and in the newly amended article 309 of the Criminal Law, which in its view is overbroad, undermines the principle of legal certainty and is open to abusive interpretation and application." The courts provide no protection against these evils; indeed, they are active collaborators in their perpetua- tion. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made clear that the courts must submit to the discipline of the central party and judicial officials who are directed by the state and the party. In January 2017, Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court and China's highest-ranking judge, denounced the idea of an independent judiciary as a "false Western" idea. Should a Canadian lawyer care about any of this? I think so. Be wary of that Chinese business lawyer who comes to call: Remember, at the end of the day, they're working for the state. Don't expect a fair shake from Chinese courts. And do whatever you can to help cou- rageous and oppressed Chinese human rights lawyers. Philip Slayton's latest book is How To Be Good: The Struggle Between Law and Ethics. Visit gpllm.law.utoronto.ca Questions? gpllm@utoronto.ca Apply today. ONE YEAR | PART-TIME | FOR LAWYERS AND BUSINESS LEADERS Master the Law. Canada's leading law school offers a graduate degree in four unique streams: Business Law Canadian Law in a Global Context Innovation, Law and Technology Law of Leadership ntitled-6 1 2017-07-12 1:19 PM

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