TITLE:
The Proper Orientation of China’s Lawyer on Duty System—Discussion on the Leniency System of Pleading Guilty and Accepting Penalty
AUTHORS:
Hong Yang, Shihua Wu
KEYWORDS:
On-Duty Lawyer, Defense Humanization, Effective Legal Assistance, Plead Guilty and Accept Penalty, Mandatory Designated Defense
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.12,
December
30,
2020
ABSTRACT: In order to cooperate with the trial of quick judgment procedure and the
leniency system of pleading guilty and accepting penalty, the lawyer on duty
system came into being. Through comparison, it can be found that after the
introduction of the duty lawyer system, China has carried out a local reform of
defending humanization. The litigation rights enjoyed by the duty lawyer far
exceed the setting of the country of origin. And the purpose of this transformation
is to expect that it will shoulder the important task of safeguarding the
criminal suspect or defendant to obtain the effective legal help and prevent
the risk of unjust and wrong cases easily caused by the leniency system of
confession and punishment. However,
the legal status, working style and compensation method of the duty lawyer
decide that it cannot guarantee the voluntariness of the defendant and the
suspect in plea cases, which will endanger the legitimacy of the leniency
system and the minimum procedural justice. Justice cannot ignore the cost, but it is empty talk
that the low cost and wide coverage of on-duty lawyers can guarantee effective
legal assistance for defendants and suspects in the cases of confession... Justice is the soul and
life of justice; the necessary cost of safeguarding justice can never be saved. It is
suggested that the suspect and defendant in the cases of guilty plea and
punishment should be provided with a mandatory designated defense system
instead of the system arrangement provided by the duty lawyer in the current
judicial interpretation, so as to ensure the justice of the procedure and the
justice of the judiciary, and
restore the basic attributes of on-duty lawyers only providing timely,
preliminary, and extensive legal services.