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Equality in Representation? The Efficacy of Court-Appointed Lawyers in the Chinese Criminal Courts

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Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of court-appointed lawyers in comparison to private attorneys within China’s criminal justice system, focusing on the “Lawyers for All” program. Utilizing data from Guangdong courts between 2018 and 2021 and covering five types of crimes, the research employs propensity score matching to evaluate sentencing lengths and probation rates. The findings indicate that defendants represented by court-appointed lawyers typically receive shorter sentences than those with private counsel, but they are less likely to be granted probation. Additionally, an innovative metric—“actual time served in prison”—suggests a reduced incarceration period for defendants with court-appointed attorneys. The study proposes that the collaborative role of court-appointed lawyers within the Chinese courtroom workgroup potentially influences these outcomes, contrasting with the adversarial nature of private attorneys. This analysis contributes to the broader understanding of legal representation in authoritarian regimes, highlighting the unique dynamics within China’s legal system.

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Notes

  1. In Germany, Sect. 140 (1) of the German Code of Criminal Procedure states that court shall assign an accused with a defense counsel in so-called necessary defense, which involves situations such as the accused is charged with a felony, is tried before a higher court, and is detained on remand or otherwise not considered able to defend himself. In Japan, according to Article 36 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, defense counsel will be appointed upon request or by the authority of the court if a suspect is detained in connection with a criminal case or is indicted.

  2. The latest version of regulation [Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Publication of Judgment Documents by the People’s Courts on the Internet 2016] states that local courts should upload any judgment online within 7 days from the date of the case is disposed (Article 7) unless this case falls into an excluded category including cases involving state secrets, juvenile criminal cases, disputes concluded through mediation, divorce, and adoption cases (Article 4). Moreover, the regulation requires local courts to disclose the Case ID, the name of the court, the filing date, and the explanation whenever they decide not to release a specific case (Article 6). This rule further institutionalized the publicizing of the court decision.

  3. In the simplest context, suppose that a court adjudicated three cases in a specific year, it posted case 1, case 3 but did not disclose case 2. Although our dataset only includes two cases, we can still deduce from the “max” Case ID of case 3 that the total number of cases adjudicated by this court in this year is at least three. In a big dataset, we use the following formula to estimate the annual caseload of criminal cases adjudicated by a court.

    $${\widehat{C}}_{all}=\frac{n+1}{n}{k}_{n}-1$$

    In this formula, n is the total number of criminal case documents posted online by a court in a specific year, and $${k}_{n}$$ refers to the largest number of the Case ID of these documents. Assuming that {$${k}_{i}$$}, i = 1, …, n is an increasing sequence, then $${\widehat{C}}_{all}$$ is the unbiased estimate of $${C}_{all}$$, the total number of cases adjudicated by this court in this year.

  4. In some violent crimes, such as traffic accidents and intentional assault, victim compensation refers to compensating for the personal injury suffered by the victim. In property crimes, such as theft, fraud, and robbery, victim compensation also includes “returning the illegally obtained money and property, or making compensation” (tuizang tuipei).

  5. According to official statistics, among 1,528,034 criminal defendants charged in 2020, 1040 were acquitted. The acquittal rate in 2020, for instance, is less than one out of a thousand (Law Yearbook of China Editorial Board, 2021).

  6. Theoretically, the probation could be revoked if defendants commit a new crime or seriously violate probation rules. In this case, defendants need to serve their declared sentence in jail. However, in practice, this rarely happened. Empirical studies suggest that the overall revocation rate in China is below 1% (Hu, 2018). Therefore, labeling their actual time served in jail as zero, though not completely precise, would not cause much bias.

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  1. Peking University Law School, Beijing, China

    Yuhao Wu

  2. Zhejiang University Guanghua Law School, Hangzhou, China

    Shiyang Li

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Wu, Y., Li, S. Equality in Representation? The Efficacy of Court-Appointed Lawyers in the Chinese Criminal Courts. Asian J Criminol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-024-09428-y

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