More steps needed to truly deliver justice
Recently the municipal people's court of Chongqing announced that people whose family members are lawyers cannot occupy leading positions in the city's court. But this move alone cannot ensure the delivery of judicial justice, says an article on Rednet. Excerpts:
The people's court of Chongqing has introduced a system within the municipality that prohibits people any of whose family members are lawyers from occupying leading positions in the court. The move is aimed at ensuring that judicial justice is delivered in all cases.
The court said that a considerable part of corruption in the courts - which leads to travesty of justice - is because of the link between judges and lawyers, and the new system will succeed in rooting it out.
Surely, the new system will be of great help. But the most effective way of preventing corruption and delivering judicial justice should be to make the process independent and transparent. And for that judges have to obey the law instead of administrative orders.
Perhaps, lawyers are involved in many corruption cases. But most of them don't have a choice. A lawyer with relatives and friends in a court has a much better chance of winning a case. In other words, some lawyers are compelled to be corrupt.
Besides, it is doubtful if Chongqing's regulation can be well executed. There are examples of such bans - like the one preventing officials and their family members from running a business - being imposed but failing to prevent corruption.
Therefore, it is not practical to expect the Chongqing courts' move alone to ensure judicial justice, even though that's really a good start.
(China Daily 01/15/2010 page9)
