The Law Society is a local organization in Japan, and its mission is the same as that of the Japanese Law Society. The Bar Association is a legal person organization. According to the provisions of the Lawyers Law, it is established within the jurisdiction of the regional courts. At present, except for the three law societies in Tokyo, the members of the law societies are all lawyers in their respective jurisdictions. Only a dozen small lawyers. Law associations must formulate their own rules, register with the Japanese Law Association, and accept the guidance and supervision of the Japanese Law Association. The Law Society has 1 president and several vice presidents. In addition, there are specialized agencies such as the Qualification Examination Committee, the Disciplinary Committee and the Disciplinary Committee. The bar association plays a connecting role in the Japanese lawyer system, which is to examine the qualifications of lawyers, guide lawyers to carry out their business and directly supervise lawyers' activities.
The working organization of Japanese lawyers is a "law firm". Japanese lawyers are all freelancers, so many law firms are individuals. The names of individual law firms are preceded by the names of lawyers, such as Yamada Law Firm and Hatoyama Law Firm. Some of these firms have special offices, and some are located in lawyers' homes. In addition to the single-person law firm, there are several partnership law firms. The partnership law firm is strong and competitive, which is conducive to the improvement of lawyers' professional level and is trusted by citizens. Therefore, in recent years, such law firms have developed rapidly. In addition to individual or partnership law firms, lawyers are also hired to work in law firms. Most of these lawyers are novices and have matured during their practice, laying the foundation for the independent establishment of law firms in the future.
In the grand scene of China's socialist modernization, the emergence and development of the lawyer system is only a less noticeable scene. However, just as a drop of dew can reflect the brilliance of the whole sun, the history of the lawyer system also vividly shows the ups and downs of China's modernization process.
China's lawyer system is the product of imitating western laws and regulations in the late Qing Dynasty. Although it was developed by Beiyang government and Kuomintang government (especially in legislation), fundamentally speaking, it is most appropriate to boil it down to a modern symbol. There are two main reasons for this: First, the formal meaning of the lawyer system is far greater than the substantive meaning in China society. In the modern west, the lawyer system is an important embodiment of judicial democracy, which is the result of the whole society advocating civil rights and taking civil rights as the basis of various political and legal systems. When the lawyer system was established in China society, the trend of freedom and equality did not prevail, and the autocratic privilege system still existed. As a part of legal improvement, the direct motive of introducing the lawyer system is to eliminate the extraterritoriality of foreign forces and reorganize state power. Therefore, if the lawyer system combined with people's rights is the externalization of democratic spirit, then the lawyer system based on state power is a modern symbol moistened by democratic spirit. Secondly, the spirit of freedom and equality contained in the lawyer system is heterogeneous with China's traditional legal culture based on patriarchal hierarchy, but in form, lawyers are easily confused with "litigants" and "litigators" despised by society, thus failing to have moral and legal legitimacy, which makes the lawyer system face double dangers: First, it is incompatible with China's traditional legal culture and excluded; The second is the loss and transformation of modern spirit.
1949 after the founding of new China, China * * * production party began to try to establish a "new lawyer system". The new lawyer system is modeled after the Soviet Union at that time, and its main feature is to bring lawyers into the scope of national public service, unified leadership and unified work. However, in the 1957 anti-rightist struggle, many lawyers became Rightists, and the lawyer system died out immediately.
From 65438 to 0979, the lawyer system was restored and rebuilt. Since then, with the continuous reform and opening-up of China society, a new round of modernization movement has emerged, and with the positioning of market economy, democratic politics and the country ruled by law in the national and social development target model becoming clear, the lawyer industry has also shown a sustained and strong development momentum. In terms of quantity and scale, the number of law firms and practitioners has increased significantly. So far, the number of law firms in China has grown from 79 in 1979 to more than 1000, and the number of employees has increased from 2 12 in 1979 to about10000. 1994 to 2002, before the implementation of the unified judicial examination, the number of lawyers applying for the examination was more than 654.38+10,000, and the number of lawyers passing the examination was more than 1000. The lawyer industry with such a scale and development speed, together with a larger number of other legal service institutions and service personnel (according to statistics, there are about 1 654,380+0000 people engaged in legal services in China), undoubtedly reflects a silent but epoch-making social change for an oriental society like China.
In terms of quality, due to the reform of China's lawyer system and the development of the lawyer industry, lawyers have changed from simple "national lawyers" to "practitioners who provide legal services to the society", and their practice forms are self-disciplined law firms established through partnership and cooperation. Legal advisory offices or law firms, as state institutions, have actually disappeared. The lawyer management system has also begun to realize the transformation from the simple administrative management of judicial administrative organs to the combination of judicial administrative management and bar association industry management, and will eventually transition to the "bar association industry management system under the macro management of judicial administrative organs".
The development, change and trend of the lawyer system in China under the background of socialist modernization can be said to be a movement beyond the local legal and cultural tradition at a higher level, which has forced this tradition to return to a potential state again. The basic content of this movement is that the lawyer industry will return to society and form an independent and self-disciplined mechanism in society that is suitable for its professional mission and professional requirements, so it is a complete socialization process as a whole. Specifically, it can be summarized into two parts: one is the mediation movement related to the state (relative to the private sector), which is characterized by lawyers gradually getting rid of their dependence on state funds and establishment; Second, the industrialization movement that took place in the relationship with the society (including the country and the people) for the purpose of forming the self-discipline mechanism of the lawyer industry. I think we can actively deal with this socialization process that will reshape the lawyer system and lawyer industry in China from two aspects.
First, in order to establish a modern democratic society ruled by law, all countries in the world should understand and attach importance to the regularity and rationality of this social system structure despite their different national conditions. As a basic part of modern society ruled by law, modern lawyer industry has the characteristics of mediation and specialization. Mediation is relative to bringing the legal profession into the scope of national public service or being a "national legal worker". On the one hand, the lawyer profession is a profession specializing in legal services. According to the dual structure of family and society in China in a modern society ruled by law, it is not necessary and difficult for the state to provide all legal services as its duty. On the other hand, modern society is a society ruled by law based on respecting citizens' rights. From the perspective of protecting citizens' rights and meeting social needs, an independent lawyer who does not belong to the system of state public power (especially administrative power) and has the right to specialize in legal activities is more suitable for supervising and counteracting the abuse of public power, and can also effectively prevent the deterioration and loss of private rights themselves due to abuse. The change from "national staff" to "practitioners who provide legal services to society" reflects that our understanding of lawyers is closer to their inherent attributes; It also reflects the great changes in the content of the political system's demand for lawyers.
Professionalization of lawyer industry is a self-integration process of decentralized lawyer industry in order to strengthen the internal contact and communication, form a whole force, and strengthen the bargaining power and influence on society. The difference is that the professional activities of lawyers are highly specialized in a complex modern society ruled by law, and the lawyer's responsibility to the parties, the perfection of the legal system and society make the lawyer industry highly autonomous and self-disciplined in its own organization and management. This can also be regarded as a "transaction" between society and the lawyer industry, that is, the society recognizes the "privilege" of the lawyer industry's autonomy and self-discipline, so that the lawyer industry can realize its professional mission and benefit the society. The transformation from state administration to increasingly self-discipline has made lawyers in China closer to civil society, become an intermediary between the state and civil society, and become an indispensable factor to promote the self-integration of civil society.
Secondly, the intermediation and industrialization of China's lawyer industry means reshaping the lawyer system and lawyer industry within a wide range of social structure, rather than the original state power structure. Therefore, not only a variety of stage design is needed, but also a systematic conception is needed. When China's lawyer industry finally breaks away from the scope of state public service, thus completely cutting off the umbilical cord connected with state power, can this profession without state power background or relying on state power obtain enough resources to realize its professional mission of safeguarding civil rights, promoting the rule of law and realizing social justice? Can China's lawyer industry reach the ideal state of industrialization on the current basis? Society is an organic whole. What are the corresponding changes in some environmental factors closely related to reshaping the lawyer system and the lawyer industry? These problems should be considered comprehensively. Judging from the situation of many modern developed countries, the lawyer system has been an organic part of its institutional framework from the beginning. Through the long-term running-in with the surrounding social environment, the lawyer industry has been transformed into a professional tradition that has been widely recognized by the society, including the realistic rationality of all aspects of the lawyer industry activities. In contrast, the remoulding of China's lawyer system and lawyer industry has many obstacles in the historical tradition. Therefore, in order to reform and develop China's lawyer system and lawyer industry, we must first position the lawyer industry in legislation and provide sufficient and necessary protection. At the same time, we should also consider the development status of the lawyer industry and its self-expansion ability. Here, a simple legal vision is obviously not enough, but also a broad social vision.