Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers Petition Letter to Beijing Lawyers Association (BLA)


Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers | 中国律师之友 | www.csclawyers.org
 
Chair: Robert N. Hornick, Esq.
Vice Chair: Professor Martin S. Flaherty, Esq. | Vice Chair: R. Scott Greathead, Esq.  
 
Leitner Center for International Law and Justice | Fordham Law School | New York City COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT CHINESE LAWYERS | 中国律师之友
 
Beijing Lawyers Association
Director Li Dajin (李大进)
East Associates (Beijing)
Landmark Tower 2, 19th Fl., 8 N. Dongsanhuan Rd.
Beijing, 100004, People’s Republic of China
Fax: (8610) 6590 6650 and 51
Via Email: hz@bmla.org.cn and dajin_li@ealawfirm.com
 
November 25, 2008
 
Dear Sir:
 
We write on behalf of the Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers to express our deep concern about reports of lawyers in China who are being intimidated after they called for the direct election of officials in the Beijing Lawyers Association (BLA). Our objective is not to support or oppose the direct election of the leaders of the BLA; that is entirely an internal matter between you and your members. We do, however, seek your assistance in investigating these reports and protecting any lawyers who are being intimidated for expressing their views.
 
The Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers is a group of independent lawyers from outside China whose goal is to support lawyers in China in their quest to strengthen the rule of law there. The Committee, which is housed at the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School in New York City, seeks to strengthen the role of lawyers and to promote their independence. We know that you share these objectives.
 
We understand the relevant facts to be as follows:
 
• On August 26, 2008, 35 lawyers in China published an appeal on the Internet
calling for direct election of the officials leading your organization, the BLA. In
their appeal (“An Appeal to All Beijing Lawyers, the Municipal Bureau of Justice,
and the Municipal Lawyers Association: Keep Pace with the Course of History,
Carry Out Lawyers Association Direct Elections” [顺应历史潮流实现律协直选——
致全体北京律师、市司法局、市律协的呼吁]) these lawyers urged that independent
candidates be allowed to run in the Association’s elections to be held at the end of
2008. On September 1, 2008, the appeal, which also criticized the BLA for
allegedly failing to represent the interests of lawyers, was sent to Xiao Lizhu (萧骊
珠), the director of the Lawyers Management Department of the Beijing Bureau of
Justice.
 
 
• On September 5, 2008, the BLA responded with its own statement (“Stern
Statement from the BLA Regarding the Appeal by a Small Number of Lawyers for
So-called ‘Beijing Lawyers Association Direct Election’” [北京市律师协会关于少
数律师呼吁所谓“北京律协直选”的严正声明]).
 
• On September 24, Tang Jitian (唐吉田), one of the signatories to the appeal, filed a complaint against the BLA charging that its September 5 statement was “libelous” insofar as it suggested that the appeal was “illegal” and a “total repudiation of China’s current lawyers’ administrative system, judicial system, and even political system.”
 
• Thereafter, a number of the lawyers who supported the appeal for direct elections
were apparently intimidated and harassed. Several were dismissed from their law
firms. For example, on October 30, 2008, lawyers Cheng Hai (程海) and Li Subin
(李苏濱), both signatories to the appeal, were asked to leave their positions at the
Beijing Yitong Law Firm following a visit to the firm by six or seven officials from
the Haidian District Bureau of Justice (海淀区司法局), who took photographs and
questioned the staff about cases that the firm has taken on. The firm’s director is
said to have felt pressured to dismiss these lawyers because they had supported the August 26 appeal and also to drop a number of rights defense cases the firm had taken on. Tang Jitian, the lawyer who filed the case against the BLA, was asked to leave the Haodong firm in Beijing “for the sake of the future of the firm.” Other signatories or firm heads have been summoned by their district bureaus of justice to report on the motivation of the signatories and on any “hostile external forces” that backed the appeal. Firm heads were told that if lawyers in the firm who signed the appeal failed to withdraw their signatures, then their firms would face problems with their annual licensing inspection.
 
Our Committee is deeply concerned about these reports that local offices of the Bureau of Justice are pressuring law firms to dismiss lawyers because they have signed an appeal calling for the direct election of bar association leaders. Dismissing lawyers for speaking out about bar association governance is contrary to the rule of law and the development of a vibrant, independent bar.  
 
Penalizing lawyers for taking positions on these issues is also inconsistent with
international standards codified in the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which state that “Lawyers like other citizens are entitled to freedom of
expression, belief, association and assembly. In particular, they shall have the right to take part in public discussion of matters concerning the law . . . and to join or form local, national or international organizations and attend their meetings, without suffering professional restrictions by reason of their lawful action or their membership in a lawful organization.” Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, 27 August to 7 September 1990, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.144/28/Rev.1 at 118 (1990), Article 23. These Principles further provide that, “Lawyers shall be entitled to form and join self-governing professional associations to represent their interests . . . . The executive body of the professional associations shall be elected by its members and shall exercise its functions without external interference.”
Article 24.
 
The Chinese Constitution also provides the right to freedom of association and freedom of speech for all Chinese citizens. Constitution of the People’s Republic of China [中华人民共和国宪法], adopted and in effect Dec. 4, 1982, amended by the National People’s Congress on March 14, 2004, Article 35.
 
We respectfully ask that you investigate these reports of intimidation and harassment, including dismissals of lawyers for advocating direct elections. If the reports are true, we ask that you vigorously denounce such dismissals and do all within your power to help these lawyers to be reinstated with their firms.
 
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
 
Very truly yours,
                   
 
Robert N. Hornick  Martin S. Flaherty  R. Scott Greathead
Chair    Vice Chair   Vice Chair
 
 
 
Cc:  Li Bingru (李冰如), BLA Secretary; Wang Xiaojuan (王笑娟), BLA Vice-
Secretary; Liu Jun (刘军), BLA Vice-Secretary; Li Kai (李凯), BLA
International Affairs Department; Wu Jing (吴静), BLA International
Affairs Department; All-China Lawyers Association; Wu Yuhua (吴玉华),
Beijing Bureau of Justice Head; Xiao Lizhu (萧骊珠), Beijing Bureau of
Justice Lawyers Management Department Director; Dong Chunjiang (董春
江), Beijing Bureau of Justice Vice Head, CCP of Beijing Bureau of Justice
General Secretary; Ministry of Justice of the People’s Republic of China;
Law Affairs Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China;
Office of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Council of the
People’s Republic of China; Beijing Judicial Bureau; Beijing Committee of
Political and Legal Affairs; Leandro Despouy, United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; Richard Goldstone,
International Bar Association, Human Rights Institute Co-Chair; Patricia M.
Hines, Association of the Bar of the City of New York President; H.
Thomas Wells, Jr., American Bar Association President.