Word: laws
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...Violence has not stopped Li and his fellow human-rights lawyers from doing their jobs, but bureaucracy might. On June 1, the law licenses for Li and more than a dozen other prominent human-rights lawyers expired. The annual renewal is generally considered a formality - a matter of filling out forms and paying a fee. But this year Li and other top human-rights lawyers were shut out. They say they are being punished for simply doing their jobs. (See pictures of the Pakistani lawyers' movement...
...When Deng Xiaoping led China on the path to reform 30 years ago, one of the key declarations he made was that the country would be ruled by law. Since then, China has made dramatic headway in developing a legal system, but the application of law has been choppy. In recent years a small group of independent lawyers across the nation has been attempting to force the state to uphold human rights. The lawyers have been subject to arrest, violence and even, in the case of one prominent advocate, disappearance. But this month's apparent disbarment of the country...
...cases seen as contrary to the interests of the Communist Party. "The domestic-security police tell the Bureau of Justice, 'These lawyers don't listen; they keep doing these kinds of cases,' " says Jiang Tianyong, a Beijing human-rights lawyer. "We say this is what's permitted under the law. But they say we have no right to argue that these defendants aren't guilty. So when it comes time for our annual assessment, our licenses aren't renewed...
...only as instruments of political control like how they were expected to perform from the 1950s to the 1970s," says Albert Ho, a Hong Kong solicitor and chairman of China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. "With the opening and liberalization of China, it needs to build a system of law and a sound legal system. The government and the governing party shall abide by the law. But they are very, very concerned that the law may cause an obstacle to the control of the people...
...said he was threatened with death if he ever revealed the details of the abuse he suffered. When asked about his case in March, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Gao was not a victim of political persecution and his case was being handled "in strict accordance with the law...