Promulgation Date of the Amendments of the “Guidelines on How Lawyers Handle Collective Cases”is Unknown

• Author: China Law Digest compiled news from newsweek

Owing to the fact that more and more lawyers get involved in cases of land expropriation, house demolition, enterprise restructuring, environmental pollution and protection of farmers’ rights, local governments has been placed under increasing pressure. Relevant governmental departments started to regulate how lawyers handle major and sensitive cases. In March 2006, All China Lawyers Association promulgated the “Guidelines on How Lawyers Handle Collective Cases” (the “Guidelines”), in which the aforementioned types of cases were defined as collective cases with high occurrence. The Guidelines required all lawyers who handle collective cases to report to the Association and the relevant judicial authorities, and to try their best to persuade the parties not to institute petitions to higher authority or class petitions against the government.

The Director of Beijing Cailiang Law Firm, Wang cailiang, who produced the first draft of the Guidelines, said that the Guidelines were originally drafted from the perspective of protecting lawyers’ rights in practice. Some limitation clauses were later added in by the All China Lawyers Association Organization of Constitutionalism and Human Rights Committee.

Soon after the...