An article entitled, How One Man in China Strengthens the Rule of Law, (h/t CDT) tells how one lawyer bringing small lawsuits can possibly bring about massive legal reform. As we argued in a previous post entitled, A Reason to Have Faith in China's Legal System, small lawsuits vindicating the rights of the average Chinese citizen will engender within the citizenry a general interest and trust in the legal system, which will perpetuate a rule of law system. Our previous article concerned a small legal aid station in Xi'an that represented migrant construction workers, and this current article concerns public interest lawsuits, which reminds me of the work that made Ralph Nader famous.
In the present article, the lawyer, Hao Jinsong, argues that the law will grow weaker if people don't use legal recourse to defend themselves because they think it's useless but, he says, "When ... people use the law as naturally as they use chopsticks, China will be close to democracy."
According to the article, Hao is best known for cases he brought against the Ministry of Railroads for failing to provide tax receipts for goods bought on trains as well as its ticket pricing policy.
He won the receipt case, on his third attempt, earning the government $2.7 million a year in tax revenue from the railroads. And though he lost two court battles to stop the railroad management raising ticket prices during the Spring Festival, when 150 million Chinese go home for the holidays, his campaign attracted wide public support. Management bowed to the pressure, and has left holiday ticket prices untouched for the past two years.
Instead of directly addressing human rights issues or issues of free speech, which can get a person tossed in jail or worse, Hao says that his way is a way ordinary people can imitate by going to court to defend their rights as consumers. "When they realize they have rights," Hao argues, "they will call for other rights, like freedom of speech or publication, later."
Hao is currently engaged in a suit against the National Forestry Agency, which he accuses of refusing to investigate a false claim by the Shaanxi provincial authorities that a South China tiger, thought to be extinct, had been photographed. The incident drew massive interest on the Chinese Internet, and widespread criticism of the authorities for trying to create a lucrative tourist attraction out of a faked photograph.
The lawsuit, Hao says, is designed "to show people that the government does not have the right to say whatever it likes. The government cannot lie, and ordinary people have the right to unmask the government's lies."
Such cases may not shake the world, but "they have a cumulative effect," says Dr. Lu. "When lots of people bring them, they contribute to positive change."
"Today I am just a butterfly flapping my wings in the Beijing sky," says Hao. "But in 20 years there will be a storm in the whole country."
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