|
The Weiquan movement is a non-centralized group of lawyers, legal experts, and intellectuals in China who seek to protect and defend the civil rights of the citizenry through litigation and legal activism. The movement, which began in the early 2000s, has organized demonstrations, sought reform via the legal system and media, defended victims of human rights abuses, and written appeal letters, despite opposition from Communist Party authorities. Among the issues adopted by Weiquan lawyers are property and housing rights, protection for AIDS victims, environmental damage, religious freedom, freedom of speech and the press, and defending the rights of other lawyers facing disbarment or imprisonment.〔〔 Individuals involved in the Weiquan movement have met with occasionally harsh reprisals from Chinese officials, including disbarment, detention, harassment, and, in extreme instances, torture.〔 Authorities have also responded to the movement with the launch of an education campaign on the "socialist concept of rule of law," which reasserts the role of the Communist Party and the primacy of political considerations in the legal profession, and with the Three Supremes, which entrenches the supremacy of the Communist Party in the judicial process. ==Background== Since the legal reforms of the late 1970s and 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has moved to embrace the language of the rule of law and establish a modern court system. In the process, it has enacted thousands of new laws and regulations, and begun training more legal professionals.〔 The concept of "rule of law" was enshrined in the constitution, and the CCP embarked on campaigns to publicize the idea that citizens have protection under the law. At the same time, however, a fundamental contradiction exists in the implementation of rule of law wherein the CCP insists that its authority supersedes that of the law;〔 the constitution enshrines rule of law, but also emphasizes the principle of the "leadership of the Communist Party." The judiciary is not independent, and is therefore subject to politicization and control by the Communist Party.〔 This has produced a system that is often described as "rule by law," rather than rule of law.〔 Because judicial decisions are subject to the sometimes arbitrary assessments of the CCP, citizens who attempt to make use of the legal system to pursue grievances find that, if their cause is determined to have the potential to undermine the authority of the Communist Party, they may be suppressed.〔Cai Yongshun, ("Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail" ) (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010)〕 Defendants who find themselves facing criminal charges, such as for conducting activism or for their religious beliefs, often have few means of pursuing an effective defense. The Weiquan movement coalesced in the early 2000s in response to these inherent contradictions and the arbitrary exercise of legal authority in China, though its roots could be traced to the consumer protection movement that began in the 1990s.〔 The movement is informal, and can be understood as including lawyers and legal activists who advocate for civil rights and defend the interests of citizens against corporations, government or Communist Party organs. Fu Hualing and Richard Cullen note that Weiquan lawyers "are generally always on the side of the weaker party: (migrant) workers v. employers in labor disputes; peasants in cases involving taxation, persons contesting environmental pollution, land appropriation, and village committee elections; journalists facing government censorship; defendants subject to criminal prosecution; and ordinary citizens who are discriminated against by government policies and actions."〔 The emergence of the Weiquan movement was made possible by a confluence of factors, including a market for their services, and an emerging rights consciousness. It was also facilitated by the 1996 "Lawyers Law," which changed the definition of lawyers from "state legal workers" to professionals holding a legal certificate who perform legal services. The law effectively delinked lawyers from the state, and gave lawyers greater (though still limited) autonomy within the profession.〔〔Elizabeth Lynch, (Rule of Law Mirage ), George Washington International Law Review, 26 April 2011.〕 Weiquan lawyers tend to be especially critical of the lack of judicial independence in China. Rather than challenging particular laws, they frame their work as being in keeping with Chinese laws, and describe their activities as a means of defending and upholding the Constitution against abuses.〔 As such, Weiquan lawyering has been described as a form of Rightful resistance.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Weiquan movement」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|