September 7, 2009 saw the founding of IBJ’s South Defender Resource Center of China (“SEDRC”) in Wuhan, south of China. The opening ceremony was held in the Law School of Wuhan University, which is one of the most famous law schools in China.  The center - located at this law school - is dedicated to improve the level of legal aid, juvenile defendants’ rights protection, especially in the southern China.

Karan Tse, CEO of IBJ, envisions that the new center will expand IBJ’s influence in the whole of China, since we already have the China headquarters in Beijing and another center in the northwest city, Xi’an. Yongping Xiao, dean of the law school, also gave a speech, he cited that the founding of SEDRC and the cooperation between the center and the law school have three impacts:

• It boosts the pursuit of social justice;
• It creates a platform for resource sharing and serving the society;
• Through the SEDRC, IBJ and the Law School of Wuhan University can deeply collaborate to push the progress of rule by law in China.

James Taylor, director of IBJ China, introduced IBJ’s programs in China, one by one, giving every attendant a clear image of IBJ. Then the director of the new resource center, Leslie Rosenberg, gave a short speech as well. She said that justice is in the process, it’s not only about the result. We are on this process of building bridges to fairness.

At this ceremony  two new staff to IBJ were introduced. They are Xiaomin Zhou and Yawen Luo. Xiaomin has a PhD from Wuhan University. Yawen mentioned that, to her, IBJ means not only “International Bridges to Justice” but also “I Believe in Justice”. Other IBJ staff and interns included James Gronquist, Kimberly Ambrose, Jennifer Tsai, Xiaomin Zhang, Yujin Liu, Yun Zhang, Hao Zhao, Jigang Luo.

SEDRC is the result of two years of preparation and intends to systematically aid the development of the criminal justice system in southeast China. It will strive to increase criminal defense lawyers’ capacity to provide competent and effective defense to indigent accused persons and safeguard their lawful rights under the law. SEDRC is dedicated to promote access to counsel,  ensure effective assistance of counsel, improve access to experts and investigatory services, foster a community of practice, increase rights awareness, and promote juvenile justice reform.

After the ceremony, IBJ held a roundtable, discussing juvenile rights protection, with approximate 20 legal aid lawyers, judges, prosecutors, law school professors and government officials attending. All of the participants expressed their experience, thoughts, and suggestions regarding juvenile rights protection in their own practice.

James Gronquist introduced IBJ’s juvenile justice programs in China. Hao Zhao, IBJ’s staff in Xi’an office introduced IBJ’s programs in the northwest China. Ao Li, who’s a clinical professor, suggested that clinical courses should aim at fostering future lawyers for China. A prosecutor of Wuhan named Elan Pan said the juvenile court should combine education, rehabilitation and reform together, and the prosecutors ought to investigate the juvenile offenders’ family, society and education background integrally and carefully enough during the pre-prosecute investigation. Chunsheng Li and Guohua Pan and some other legal aid lawyers introduced the most impressive cases they had represented ever.

In addition, a student representative who had taken clinical courses also spoke at the roundtable.  He gave an introduction to his study and his experience during his clinical courses. Attendants refelcted that he showed that a seed of public interest has been planted. Participants cited that such roundtables help them to understand their work through other perspectives thus giving them a whole view of the juvenile legal aid in their area.

(Luo Jigang contributed to this post.)

The following article was originally published in the December 2008 issue of the Montana Lawyer magazine:

In January of this year I had the good fortune to travel to Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of the Mansfield Center at The University of Montana to meet with Karen Tse, the CEO and founder of International Bridges to Justice (IBJ). Karen is a graduate of UCLA Law School and Harvard Divinity School, a former public defender, and the 2008 recipient of the ABA’s International Human Rights Award. We reached an agreement with IBJ to assist in developing criminal defense clinics in law schools in China. Clinical legal education is still new to China, and criminal defense clinics are even newer. Our current project has 8 participating Chinese law schools, and we will expand the project to 16 schools by the middle of next year. The project is being conducted in conjunction with the Chinese Committee on Clinical Legal Education, the umbrella organization for clinical education in China. Over the next few months, I will describe some of the problems and challenges to legal reform in China, and to the best of my ability give you my perspective on what it’s like for a practitioner from Montana to be participating in that reform.

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Attorney Mu Hongying gave up a successful private practice in 2002 to dedicate herself fully to helping those who need her most: the poor and rural residents of her county. One of the few brave lawyers pioneering a model indigent defense practice for indigent defense, Attorney Mu is undaunted by the challenge of reforming a criminal justice system that — despite having a solid legal framework on paper — in practice grants defendants few rights.

During one of the interactive sessions, Attorney Mu inspired the assembled training participants with her recent zealous defense of a 15 year old boy. Impoverished, the boy’s family was unable send him to school. To pass the time, the boy began aimlessly playing games at internet cafés. One day, the boy had no money to play and impulsively took a cell phone belonging to another teenager in the café. Subsequently, he was caught running out of the café and detained for many months until trial. During his entire incarceration, his parents never once visited him, leaving the boy feeling depressed and hopeless.

Deeply committed, Attorney Mu visited the boy at the detention center many times. Through this, she learned much about the boy’s life, including how remorseful he was for his conduct. Thereafter, Attorney Mu met with the boy’s parents and persuaded them to talk with their son and provide better support. Because of Attorney Mu’s efforts, the parents began visiting the boy. Ultima-tely, Attorney Mu convinced the court that a non-jail sentence was a just outcome, since the boy now had proper parental support. Attorney Mu’s perse-verance is a prime example of why zealous defense work is so critical. Without her help, the boy likely would have received a long jail sentence.

This September, I took a leave from my job as an assistant state public defender in the Office of the Minnesota State Public Defender to volunteer with IBJ in China. A juvenile defense lawyer with over 24 years practice experience in the US, I was particularly interested in assisting IBJ’s Juvenile Justice Project, a program that aims to improve the quality of indigent defense for children in criminal proceedings, while also promot-ing improved implementation of laws designed to protect the rights of accused juveniles. Through a partnership with the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) in the United States, I learned about this exciting opportunity at IBJ. ISLP began as a small group of retired lawyers from private firms who wanted to find opportunities to use their legal skills as volunteers. The organization continues to grow and now has volunteers in various countries around the world. ISLP agreed to sponsor my trip and helped make the arrangements for me to live in Beijing and volunteer with IBJ over the next three months.

Over the past month, I have learned a great deal about the needs of China’s juvenile justice system. Although by law juveniles are entitled to legal aid, many go through the criminal process without ever seeing a lawyer. Those who do receive appointment of counsel frequently receive substandard legal representation. Often, defense lawyers are appointed to juvenile cases just a few days before trial, preventing them from visiting their clients, asserting their legal rights or presenting any meaningful defense at trial. As a result, the vast majority of juvenile suspects are detained for many months before trial; almost all are convicted and frequently receive jail sentences, even for petty crimes.

Many of the Chinese lawyers I have met are dedicated passionately to the reform of the juvenile justice system, yet lack the skills necessary to bring about meaningful change. I have learned of the need for China’s lawyers to gain practical trial skills and how great a need there is for the international community to help provide that training. China’s juvenile defenders are interested in working on skills such as how to interview juvenile clients, learning about adolescent development and achieving alternatives to incarceration for their juvenile clients. Over the next three months, I am working with IBJ and their Chinese partners to develop a comprehensive juvenile defense manual, a practical guide that will instruct lawyers on best practices for defending accused juveniles.

International Bridges to Justice Founder and CEO Karen Tse speaks at the 2008 Committee of 100 Conference.

The Committee of 100 is a national non-partisan organization composed of American citizens of Chinese descent. Each member has achieved positions of leadership in the United States in a broad range of professions. With these diverse backgrounds, members collectively pool their strengths and experience to address important issues concerning the Chinese-American community, as well as issues affecting U.S.-China relations.