What is the significance of criminal defense? Why is China so strict with criminal defense lawyers? Can lawyers do criminal defense?

Significance of the implementation of the new lawyer law to criminal defense lawyers The new lawyer law, revised and passed in June 2007 and implemented in June 2008, will surely occupy an important position in the process of rule of law in China. The new lawyer law emphasizes the protection and maintenance of lawyers' rights, which is a great progress in the judicial concept. The mainstream concept in the judicial field is that the lawyer's right is the extension of the client's right. Therefore, protecting lawyers' rights means protecting human rights and is the core of governing the country according to law. The concept of equal protection of human rights is deeply rooted in people's hearts, especially from the protection of lawyers' right to meet, read papers and investigate and collect evidence in criminal cases, so as to fundamentally reverse the practice of the public, procuratorial and legal systems to despise and exclude criminal defense lawyers in criminal cases, increase the transparency of cases, prevent the occurrence of unjust, false and misjudged cases, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants. Article 33 of the new Lawyers Law particularly emphasizes that the entrusted lawyer has the right to meet the criminal suspect and the defendant with the lawyer's practice certificate, law firm certificate, power of attorney or legal aid letter from the day when the criminal suspect is interrogated for the first time by the investigation organ or compulsory measures are taken to learn about the relevant cases. Lawyers are not monitored when they meet criminal suspects and defendants. According to the previous judicial practice, lawyers need the approval of the investigation organ when meeting with criminal suspects, and the investigation organ should send personnel to accompany them. Although the Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that the investigation organ shall arrange a meeting with the lawyer within 48 hours after the meeting, there are also many cases that violate this provision in practice, such as the reason given by the case-handling personnel for going on a business trip, or the absence of the leader, which makes it impossible to give instructions. Lawyers rarely compete on this issue, otherwise it is difficult to communicate effectively with case handlers. The implementation of the new lawyer law has fundamentally reversed and solved the problem of lawyers' meeting difficulties, and also endowed criminal suspects with certain defense rights, which is helpful to protect human rights. The implementation of the new lawyer law has also reversed the concept of emphasizing entity over procedure in the judicial field to a certain extent. In this concept, the role of lawyers in criminal defense cases is particularly despised. Judging from the statistics of the Bar Association and the status of criminal defense lawyers, criminal defense cases have never been the mainstream of lawyers' business. Some people in the legal profession believe that it is difficult to be a criminal defense lawyer without extensive social relations. The implementation of the new lawyer law, to a certain extent, emancipates the mind of criminal defense lawyers, which is conducive to lawyers' more involvement in criminal cases and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants. The implementation of the new lawyer law is essentially a compromise of Miranda rule in Anglo-American law system. From a purely legal point of view, Miranda rule is more conducive to protecting the rights and interests of criminal suspects, especially the procedure of not interrogating criminal suspects in the absence of their lawyers, which gives criminal suspects full right to defense. If you want to charge a crime, the police need hard evidence. This gives the two sides an opportunity to debate and communicate from the investigation stage, which helps to clarify the case and protect rights. However, based on the national conditions of China, the Miranda rule is implemented at this stage, lacking the corresponding legal soil and social environment. However, the Lawyers Law, which came into effect 10 years ago, can no longer meet the requirements of society. In order to achieve a certain degree of balance, the new Lawyers Law does not stipulate that lawyers have the right to be present from the day when the investigation organ first interrogates or takes compulsory measures. However, it is clearly stipulated that lawyers have the autonomy to meet and are not subject to monitoring. The implementation of the new lawyer law is an encouraging thing. I hope that one day, the national legislature can learn more advanced judicial concepts and fully protect human rights.