Submission to the report on the protection of lawyers. The Rights Practice. December 2021 lawyers are unable to freely collect evidence on their client’s case, they are not able to provide an adequate defence and defendants are at risk of miscarriages of justice. Criminal defence lawyers are also restricted full access to the case file of their client and information that may be vital to provide an adequate defence. This is especially important in death penalty cases, where this can mean the difference between life and death. 21 As set out in the answer to Question 1 above, lawyers have the right to access files under the Law on Lawyers (2017), but this right can be restricted in certain cases. Lawyers are also not permitted access to a secondary file on the case. The Judges Law (2017), Article 7, states that judges are required to keep ‘judicial work secrets’ confidential. The 1990 Judicial Work Secrets Regulations prohibits the disclosure of trial secrets. 22 Any violations may be punished by Party discipline, administrative penalties and even criminal prosecution. The definition of judicial work secrets is unclear in Chinese law but includes non-court personnel accessing secondary files without approval of the leadership of a court.23 Chinese lawyers, legal professionals and judges have previously called to reduce or abolish this secondary file as it contradicts the Supreme People’s Court aims of greater judicial transparency.24 4. Please describe the role of the national bar association(s) in protecting lawyers and the free exercise of the legal profession. Is the bar association de jure and de facto independent from the State? The All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) is the official professional association for lawyers in China. It was founded in 1986, and is answerable to the Ministry of Justice. It is not independent from the State. Chinese lawyers are obliged to be members of the local branch of the All China Lawyers Association. The ACLA has the power, each year, to renew lawyers’ licenses and register law firms. Lawyers and law firms must reregister annually, leaving them vulnerable to political pressure. This system of renewal is used by judicial authorities as a way in which to control and punish lawyers, especially lawyers that take cases involving rights abuses and are deemed politically sensitive. 5. Please provide detailed information on the number of lawyers that have been subject to criminal, administrative or disciplinary proceedings in the last five years for alleged violations of standards of professional conduct. How many of them were found guilty? How many of them were ultimately disbarred? The Rights Practice, “Respect for Minimum Standards? Report on the Death Penalty in China”. 10 October, 2020. https://www.rights-practice.org/news/respect-for-minimum-standards-report-on-the-death-penalty-in-china 22 The Rights Practice. “Lack of Transparency on the Death Penalty Impacts Human Rights”. March 2021. https://www.rights-practice.org/news/lack-of-transparency-on-the-death-penalty-in-china-impacts-human-rights 23 Finder, Susan. “China's Translucent Judicial Transparency”. 18 October, 2018. in: Transparency Challenges Facing China (2018), Peking University School of Transnational Law Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3344466. pp. 145 24 Ibid 21 6