Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T17:57:09.304Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Proceduralism, Political Embeddedness and Death Penalty Lawyers in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2019

Hong Lu*
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Tereza Trejbalova
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Email: trejbalo@unlv.nevada.edu.
Bin Liang
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University, Tulsa. Email: bin.liang@okstate.edu.
*
Email: hong.lu@unlv.edu (corresponding author).

Abstract

Research suggests that cause lawyers are a diverse group. Death penalty lawyers with attachment to political institutions and a strong commitment to procedurals tend to have a unique path to professional identification, participation in the legal process and acquiring the ability to affect case outcomes. Borrowing from Hilbink's typologies and Liu and Halliday's analytical framework, this study examines in detail the practices of proceduralist and progressive elite lawyers. It uses a high-profile capital case, the Nian Bin case, as a case study to analyse the motivation and strategies of the lead defence lawyer in the context of progressive proceduralist cause lawyers. Relevant theoretical and policy implications as well as suggestions for future studies are discussed.

摘要

法社会学研究表明事业律师有多种类型。死刑案件代理律师通常会因为对政治机构的依赖性,或对程序的信奉和恪守,而形成独特的职业特质,法律程序的参与度,以及锻造有效推进案子的能力。本文借鉴 Hilbink, 和刘思达和 Hallliday 的分析模式,对注重程序的改革精英派律师进行深入分析。以念斌案为案例,本文着重剖析念斌律师的动力,策略,和改革程序派律师的职业特征。文章结尾总结了该分析对相关的理论及政策的意义并提出对将来类似研究的建议。

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al Saud, Hussa S.A. 2012. “Weiquan lawyers' movement in China: does it have a future?Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 13(2), 4473.10.1163/138819012X13323234710107Google Scholar
Barclay, Scott, and Chomsky, Daniel. 2014. “How do cause lawyers decide when and where to litigate on behalf of their cause?Law & Society Review 48(3), 595620.Google Scholar
Calmore, John O. 1999. “Call to context: the professional challenges of cause lawyering at the intersection of race, space, and poverty.” Fordham Law Review 67(5), 1927–57.Google Scholar
CAPD (China Against the Death Penalty). 2012. “China against the death penalty: report 2012,” http://www.worldcoalition.org/media/resourcecenter/CADP2012report-EN.pdf. Accessed 30 November 2018.Google Scholar
Chen, Wei. 2015. “Nian Bin an bianhu lüshi tuan: fazhi de shengli” (Nian Bin's defence group: the victory of rule of law). Zhongguo xinwen zhoukan, 16 March, http://news.163.com/15/0316/19/AKRPRQNV00014AEE.html. Accessed 26 May 2017.Google Scholar
Chen, Xingliang. 2006. Sixing beiwanglu (Referendum on the Death Penalty). Hubei: Wuhan daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Etienne, Margareth. 2005. “The ethics of cause lawyering: an empirical examination of criminal defence lawyers as cause lawyers.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 95(4), 11951260.Google Scholar
Feng, Chongyi. 2009. “The rights defence movement, rights defence lawyers and prospects for constitutional democracy in China.” Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Journal 1(3), 150169.Google Scholar
Flyvbjerg, Bent. 2006. “Five misunderstandings about case-study research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12, 219245.Google Scholar
Fu, Hualing. 2014. “Human rights lawyering in Chinese courtrooms.” The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law 2(2), 270288.Google Scholar
Fu, Hualing, and Cullen, Richard. 2008. “Weiquan (rights protection) lawyering in an authoritarian state: building a culture of public-interest lawyering.” The China Journal 59, 111127.10.1086/tcj.59.20066382Google Scholar
Fu, Hualing, and Cullen, Richard. 2009. “The development of public interest litigation in China.” In Yap, Po Jen and Lau, Holning (eds.), Public Interest Litigation in Asia. New York, NY: Routledge, 934.Google Scholar
Fu, Hualing, and Cullen, Richard. 2011. “Climbing the weiquan ladder: a radicalizing process for rights-protection lawyers.” The China Quarterly 205, 4059.Google Scholar
Gao, Mingyong, and Yang, Zhenzhen. 2014. “Fan si Nian Bin an: ‘yi fa jiu cuo’ bushi jiandan wenti” (Rethinking the Nian Bin case: correcting a legal mistake is not a simple task), http://finance.china.com.cn/roll/20140827/2637941.shtml. Accessed 24 May 2017.Google Scholar
Givens, John W. 2014. “Sleeping with dragons? Politically embedded lawyers suing the Chinese state.” Wisconsin International Law Journal 31(3), 101140.Google Scholar
Halliday, Terence C., Karpik, Lucien and Feeley, Malcolm M. (eds.). 2007. Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. Portland, OR: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Hand, Keith J. 2006. “Using law for a righteous purpose: the Sun Zhigang incident and evolving forms of citizen action in the People's Republic of China.” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 45(1), 114195.Google Scholar
He, Jiahong. 2015. “Case study on the causes of wrongful conviction in Chinese criminal proceedings.” Frontiers of Law in China 10, 670689.Google Scholar
He, Jiahong. 2016. Back from the Dead: Wrongful Convictions and Criminal Justice in China. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press.10.21313/hawaii/9780824856618.001.0001Google Scholar
He, Jiahong, and He, Ran. 2012. “Empirical studies of wrongful convictions in mainland China.” University of Cincinnati Law Review 80/4, 1277–92.Google Scholar
Hilbink, Thomas M. 2004. “You know the type: categories of cause lawyering.” Law & Social Inquiry 29(3), 657698.Google Scholar
Hung, Chin-fu. 2010. “The politics of China's wei-quan movement in the internet age.” International Journal of China Studies 1(2), 331349.Google Scholar
Jue, Jiang. 2015. “Legal and political rights advocacy in wrongful conviction death penalty cases in China: a study of the Leping case of injustice.” Columbia Journal of Asian Law 29(2), 96145.Google Scholar
Li, Xuejun. 2014. “Li Xueyun: ye tan Nian Bin an: zhuanjia fuzhuren zhidu yu Nian Bin an de yiyi” (Discussing the Nian Bin case: the importance of the expert assistant system in the Nian Bin case), 14 October 2014, http://www.aisixiang.com/data/78909.html. Accessed 22 May 2017.Google Scholar
Li, Yunfang. 2014. “Duihua Nian Bin lüshi Zhang Yansheng: yao biaoyang faguan, guli tamen jiuzheng yuan'an” (Dialogue with Nian Bin's lawyer Zhang Yansheng: praise the judge and encourage the correction of wrongful convictions.” Pengpai xinwen, 22 August 2014, http://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1263125. Accessed 23 May 2017.Google Scholar
Liu, Sida, and Halliday, Terence C.. 2011. “Political liberalism and political embeddedness: understanding politics in the work of Chinese criminal defence lawyers.” Law & Society Review 45(4), 831865.10.1111/j.1540-5893.2011.00458.xGoogle Scholar
Liu, Sida, and Halliday, Terence C.. 2016. Criminal Defence in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ma, Shipeng. 2014. “Ming'an bipo” (Murder cases must be solved). Thepaper.cn, 25 July, https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1252710. Accessed 6 December 2018.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie. 1998. “The causes of cause lawyering: toward an understanding of the motivation and commitment of social justice lawyers.” In Sarat, Austin and Scheingold, Stuart (eds.), Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities. New York: Oxford University Press, 3168.Google Scholar
Meyer, Michelle N. 2006. “The plaintiff as person: cause lawyering, human subject research, and the secret agent problem.” Harvard Law Review 119(5), 1510–31.Google Scholar
Michelson, Ethan. 2007. “Lawyers, political embeddedness, and institutional continuity in China's transition from socialism.” American Journal of Sociology 113(2), 352414.10.1086/518907Google Scholar
Michelson, Ethan, and Liu, Sida. 2010. “What do Chinese lawyers want? Political values and legal practice.” In Li, Cheng (ed.), China's Emerging Middle Class: Beyond Economic Transformation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 310333.Google Scholar
Nesossi, Elisa. 2015. “Political opportunities in non-democracies: the case of Chinese weiquan lawyers.” The International Journal of Human Rights 19(7), 961978.10.1080/13642987.2015.1075305Google Scholar
Peerenboom, Randall. 2002. China's Long March towards Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511493737Google Scholar
Pils, Eva. 2006. “Asking the tiger for his skin: rights activism in China.” Fordham International Law Journal 30(4), 1209–87.Google Scholar
Pils, Eva. 2009. “The practice of law as conscientious resistance: Chinese weiquan lawyers’ experience.” doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1564447.Google Scholar
Pils, Eva. 2014. China's Human Rights Lawyers: Advocacy and Resistance. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 2009. A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin, and Scheingold, Stuart A. (eds.). 1998. Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin, and Scheingold, Stuart A. (eds.). 2001. Cause Lawyering and the State in a Global Era. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/0195141172.001.0001Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin, and Scheingold, Stuart A. (eds.). 2006. Cause Lawyers and Social Movements. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A., and Bloom, Anne. 1998. “Transgressive cause lawyering: practice sites and the politicization of the professional.” International Journal of the Legal Profession 5(2/3), 209253.10.1080/09695958.1998.9960449Google Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A., and Sarat, Austin. 2004. Something to Believe In: Politics, Professionalism and Cause Lawyering. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Si, Weijiang. 2014. “Nian Bin an: bianhu ci” (Nian Bin case: the defence). Shandong Hongzheng Law Firm website, 5 September 2014, http://www.sdhzls.com/news/?135_1271.html. Accessed 24 May 2017.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel E. 2016. “Activist lawyers in post-Tiananmen China.” Law & Social Inquiry 42(1), 118.Google Scholar
Sypnowich, Christine. 1999. “Procedualism and democracy.” Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 19, 649657.10.1093/ojls/19.4.649Google Scholar
Tam, Waikeung. 2010. “Political transition and the rise of cause lawyering: the case of Hong Kong.” Law & Social Inquiry 35(3), 663687.Google Scholar
Teng, Biao. 2012. “Rights defence (weiquan), microblogs (weibo), and the surrounding gaze (weiquan): the rights defence movement online and offline.” China Perspectives 3, 2941.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 1989. “John Locke: social contract versus political anthropology.” The Review of Politics 51, 328.10.1017/S0034670500015837Google Scholar
Wan, William. 2014. “In China, a rare criminal case in which evidence made a difference.” Washingtonpost.com, 29 December, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-china-a-rare-criminal-case-in-which-evidence-made-a-difference/2014/12/29/23f86b80-796b-11e4-9721-80b3d95a28a9_story.html?utm_term=.e5ecca34bc84. Accessed 6 December 2018.Google Scholar
Wang, Haojun. 2014. “Nian Bin an yizuicongwu bunengzhiyu biaoyang faguan” (Nian Bin case cannot stop at praising the judges). , 25 August, http://jining.dzwww.com/wszt/201408/t20140825_10898518.htm?pc. Accessed 6 December 2018.Google Scholar
Wang, Jianliang. 2015. “Xinhuashe renmin ribao ping ‘sike lushi bei zhua’” (Xinhua People's Daily comments on stickler lawyers being arrested). Thepaper.cn, 15 July, https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1352509. Accessed 6 December 2018.Google Scholar
Wang, Xiyu. 2014. “Nian Bin lüshi: shi zai he dangdi zaocheng yuan'an de gong-jian-fa bumen si ke” (Nian Bin's lawyer: fighting with the gong-jian-fa). IFeng.com, 23 August 2014, http://news.ifeng.com/a/20140823/41699261_0.shtml. Accessed 25 May 2017.Google Scholar
Yap, Po J., and Lau, Holning (eds.). 2010. Public Interest Litigation in Asia. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203842645Google Scholar
Zhang, Yansheng. 2014. “Nian Bin an: ling ren zhenjing de zhenxiang” (The case of Nian Bin – the shocking truth). Zhang Yansheng Blog, 22 July 2014, http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhangyanshengbj. Accessed 25 May 2017.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yansheng. 2018. “Zhang Yansheng lushi jianjie” (Lawyer partner Zhang Yansheng bio), https://www.kanzhun.com/news/152671.html. Accessed 6 December 2018.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yansheng, and Gong, Sunxue. 2011. “Yidian chongchong: Nian Bin an Zhang Yansheng lüshi bianhuci” (So many doubtful points: lawyer Zhang Yansheng's defence in the Nian Bin case). Zhongguo lüshi, 21 January 2013, http://www.lawtime.cn/article/lll101898018101903112oo180175. Accessed 24 May 2017.Google Scholar
Zhou, Wei. 2014. “Nian Bin an banian zhaoxue lüshi fa changpian shengming” (After eight years Nian Bin exonerated, lawyer issues a statement). Caixin, 22 August 2014, http://china.caixin.com/2014-08-22/100720137.html. Accessed 26 May 2017.Google Scholar