How Come the Bureau of Justice Control the Lawyers Association*

• Author: Xu Kai

“The Lawyer’s Association cannot be relied upon. The Lawyers Association ought to be like our own dear Mother; however she has already turned into an evil woman,” said lawyer Zhang Sizhi. But the Lawyers Association also had something to say, after being pressured by the department of justice administration. When the Li Zhuang case sat in court, the Lawyers Association was prohibited from intervening by the Minister of Justice and Bureau of Justice of Beijing City.

The Lawyers Association has no self-governance, and this has to do with the current “Two-in-one” system of governance, which means that the department of Justice’s administration has the overall responsibilities of directing and overseeing the law profession, and the Lawyers Association takes on routine management roles.

Under this “Two-in-one” system, with the exception of routine reports from the Lawyer Association, the department of Justice Administration also wields its control over the Lawyer Association through the Lawyers Association’s Secretary General and CCP Committee. All, without the exception, the Secretary General, come from the department of...