China’s defence lawyers still suffer violence, threats and arbitrary detention despite the country’s progress in embracing the rule of law, a Human Rights Watch researcher has warned.

Nicholas Bequelin, speaking at the Law Society last week, said there is no room for a legal system independent of the government in a one-party state. Lawyers can be prosecuted for challenging confessions or police evidence, even when obtained under duress, he said. Lawyers are also hindered from gathering evidence, meeting clients in confidence, and from producing and cross-examining witnesses in court.

Progress has been made since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1978, with lawyer numbers growing from almost none to 130,000 mostly commercial practitioners today.

He said Chinese lawyers wish to adopt the UK’s common law system, to fight ‘case law battles [with the advantages] of case law tradition and practice’. Some have asked UK and other lawyers to monitor the development of China’s legal system.