A Connecticut Lawyer in a Chinese Court
Visit reminds one practitioner to value America's legal institutionsBy AUDREY B. BLONDIN
It was very auspicious timing to have been in China last April, the week before NATO forces accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, unleashing a fury in Beijing and elsewhere not seen in China since the Tiananmen Square uprising 10 years earlier.
My visit to China was part of an Eisenhower People to People mission to Beijing and Xi'an of 20 American and Canadian women attorneys, including the three of us from Connecticut: Rita Provatas of Tobin, Carberry O'Malley, Riley and Selinger of New London, Josephine Miller, Corporation Counsel for Praxair Inc, of Danbury, and myself.
Our mission was entitled "Women and the Law and Politics." We were the first delegation of American women attorneys to ever visit China.
While in China, we met with a representative of the National People's Congress, and a representative of the China Legal Aid Society. We toured the Supreme Court of China in Beijing and met with three Supreme Court justices. We also met with a representative of the All China Women's Federation and with several members of China's premier female-owned law firm, the Law Offices of Horus L. Kai.
To some extent, these encounters with our Chinese counter parts were not what I expected. There was a certain sense of repression that you could not quite put your finger on, but was always there, lurking in the background.
Throughout these meetings, the dialogue would often turn to questions of human rights or the one-child family policy. Each time these issues were raised by a member of our delegation, the Chinese either abruptly ended the meeting or changed the subject. It was obvious to us by the end of our visit in Beijing that the meaningful exchange of dialogue we sought was not being allowed to occur.
While in China, much of our time was spent learning about the Chinese legal and political system. China has no graduate programs in law and local school boards do not exist. There is one statewide educational system. And only those who pass rigorous testing criteria may attend a university.
The study of law is completed through a four-year university program, after which a test is required that is similar to our bar exam. Judges are trained the same way, though a four-year university program, which we were told is a less rigorous program than the one for attorneys, and may partly explain why judges are held in less esteem than lawyers in China.
The average salary for an attorney is about $200.00 per month, and about one-third of all Chinese lawyers are women. There is not probate court system, and no juvenile court system to speak of. The Chinese were very interested to hear about both our probate and juvenile court systems, and seemed anxious to absorb some of these ideas for themselves.
Our Chinese counterparts were also familiar with mediation and alternative dispute resolution, and were having some success in implementing these programs. All court trials are conducted by either a three- or five-judge panel. Members of the panel carry out the investigation, hear the case and make a written decision generally within a three month time frame. All court reporting is done by hand with pan and ink. Decisions are delivered by messenger to the parties concerned.
Two of our delegation members made presentations on the Massachusetts Worker's Compensation System and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Both concepts of Worker's Compensation and ADA rights and compliance were essentially incomprehensible in a society where individual rights, either personal or in the work place, do not exist.
A highlight of the trip for me was in Xi'an, where we met with the students and professors at the Northwestern University of Law and Politics. In my capacity as an attorney, as well as a member of the Litchfield Board of Selectmen, I presented a seminar on the Town Meeting form of government. My presentation was extremely well received, and the professors and students seemed very excited to hear and learn about democracy in action in Litchfield. Granted, this was before the embassy bombing took place. I'm doubtful that today the Chinese government would allow me to give this presentation.
We also observed a trial in the municipal court of Xi'an and met with a number of municipal court judges there. It was a very sobering experience to sit in a Chinese courtroom and see no jury box, knowing how much our right to a trial by jury means to us in America. It was also very sobering to see no oath administered before the trial began. Rather, both parties rose and showed their identity cards to the presiding judges, after which the "trial" proceeded, minus our customary rules of court decorum and evidence.
Another highlight of my trip was to be questioned by a Chinese judge concerning our jury system. He could not understand how people who had no legal training could decide a person's fate. I explained to him how it was the trial lawyer's job to convince the jury his or her side of the case was the right one, but the judge just shook his head in disbelief at what I was saying.
To say the that you don't know how good something is until you don't have it anymore is an understatement in view of my brief observation of the Chinese legal and political system. We should all treasure the freedoms we have as American citizens, and the opportunities we all enjoy as attorneys to practice and defend those freedoms. Based on my experience in China, these are priceless gifts and to lose them would bring consequences to ourselves and our clients unimaginable to us.
Audrey B. Blondin of Torrington's Law Offices of Audrey B. Blondin
practices real estate and bankruptcy law.