War on Law Continues Three Years After “Black Friday” (China Digital Times)
China Digital Times, July 10, 2018
War on Law Continues Three Years After “Black Friday”
“In an open letter to Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua, New York City Bar president Roger Juan Maldonado noted similar concerns about ongoing reprisals, adding: The harassment, intimidation, disappearance, detention, and prosecution of these lawyers and other rights defenders undermines China’s legal reform and commitment to the rule of law and deters the development of a professional and independent bar. Chinese law, in its constitution and in other legislation, guarantees numerous fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and association, as well as due process rights, such as the right to be represented by a lawyer. Article 37 of the Lawyers Law of the People’s Republic of China specifically provides that “a lawyer’s right of the person is inviolable,” and affirms that a lawyer is not legally liable for the positions he or she presents on behalf of a client. Despite these provisions, lawyers and other rights defenders are being targeted for the kinds of cases and causes they represent professionally.”
