by Gerald de Jaager
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS IF YOU ARE ARRESTED! reads a large sign on the wall of a detention center for criminal suspects. Among the twelve rights listed are the following:
- You have the right to know the reasons for your arrest.
- You have the right to a lawyer after arrest. Tell police you want a lawyer immediately.
- You have the right to a trial. The trial must be open to the public.
The sign is not written in English—it's in Mandarin. Which is as it should be, since the sign hangs in China, advising Chinese citizens of their rights under the revised criminal code adopted in 1996.Suchrights contrast starkly with previous protections for accused persons in China and has changed the way legal assistance is handled.
The Chinese Ministry of Justice has opened more than 2,700 legal aid centers throughout the country to enforce them. The attorneys at those centers perform a role roughly equivalent to that of American public defenders except that they undertake civil as well as criminal matters and are often the only legal assistance available to an ordinary Chinese citizen. In the years since the centers were created, the legal aid lawyers are said to have handled over six million requests for advice and assistance.
Earlier this year Barbara Ho,'03, working as a fellow in the Beijing office of the NGO International Bridges to Justice(IBJ), made a substantial contribution to advancing the rule of law in China. Ho, who speaks Mandarin, organized, administered, and helped present training in Beijing and throughout the country for hundreds of legal aid lawyers. That training reinforced the lawyers' understanding of their functions and strengthened their advocacy skills. Ho also helped prepare the first manual ever distributed to Chinese legal aid lawyers, a practical how-to guide that highlights relevant laws and discusses advocacy techniques, and she facilitated discussions among judges, correctional officers, public defenders, and local officials about the thorniest issues they face. "'Surprised' is probably not a strong enough word to describe my reaction to all the energy I encountered in so many places for making this system of rights work," said Ho. "'Amazed'is probably more accurate. It was nothing like what I had expected."
Ho's route to China went through Miami, where she had worked in the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office since graduating from the Law School. "I was completely happy there," she recalled. "I loved the work and my colleagues were wonderful." She successfully litigated many cases, including a felony trial and high-profile case arising from the arrest of a protester at a free-trade conference.
But then one day she saw an ad for the IBJ job seeking a person with litigation experience who spoke Mandarin. Since her sister was already working in Beijing on an HIV/AIDS-related project, the opportunity was irresistible. There was one small problem. The IBJ job would not end until September and she was scheduled to begin a clerkship with U.S. Magistrate Judge James Glazebrook in August. "I've been so lucky in my short career to work with such great people," she said, explaining that Glazebrook allowed her the extra time she needed in China before beginning her clerkship.
Now she's working with Judge Glazebrook and, having managed the cultural shocks of a transition from Beijing to Orlando, she said she's "learning a lot from a great judge who's also a great mentor."
Ho credits her clinical experience not just for the practical skills that enabled her to handle challenging litigation issues with relative ease, but for the very fact that she wound up in legal services at all. "I came to law school, like most students do, with a general idea of what I wanted to do, but [I was] completely unaware of what the specifics of that might look like. In my case, I was interested in public interest law. My assignments at the clinic were so compelling, my professors were so brilliant and so dedicated, and the issues were so vital, that litigation and policy related to the indigent accused just kind of swept my life in the direction its gone."
