Lawyer Huang Baoxue graduated from Shandong University of Economics in 1997. He once worked in a listed company and has been engaged in legal affairs and management for nearly ten years. He has extensive experience in the field of corporate legal affairs. He has acted for dozens of economic, civil and criminal cases in the past few years.
Professional areas: real estate business, corporate legal business, economic disputes, criminal defense, etc.
Practicing philosophy: Lawyers must not only be proficient in the law, but more importantly, solve problems.
Practicing creed: To be a lawyer, you must have a sense of justice, do not win cases that should not be won, and do not lose cases that should not be lost.
A lawyer had just won a major lawsuit, and he immediately telegraphed his client: "Justice has been won." His client called back immediately and eagerly: "Appeal immediately!" This is an old joke about lawyers. Although the joke is short, three baggages are revealed: First, it is not the righteous party that wins; second, the parties are most concerned about and only care about the result, regardless of justice or not, third, the interests of the parties are the justice pursued by the lawyers. The first two issues have nothing to do with lawyers or have little to do with lawyers. The third burden is the professional ethical dilemma about lawyers’ value orientation, also known as the dilemma of lawyers’ commerciality and social justice: when the interests of the parties conflict with social justice , Should lawyers maximize the interests of their clients, or should they pursue social justice as their responsibility?
Under an ideal structure, the two should be unified. "Lawyers should safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the parties, safeguard the correct implementation of the law, and safeguard social fairness and justice." In reality, however, such conflicts are lurking in all cases. "Formal contradiction" is like the two sides of a coin. Two parties dispute their interests. When one party is on the side of lawfulness and justice, the other party must stand on the side of injustice. Lawyers can only choose to stand on the side of one party. Therefore, the interests of the parties are The struggle with social justice is bound to happen. This difference in position has also attracted two radically different positive and negative evaluations of lawyers from the society, which can be described as mixed.
1. The first thing that any profession solves is the problem of livelihood, except for the saint who likes to live a life of "one meal, one drink, in the back alleys, people are overwhelmed, and will never change their happiness". Lawyers generate income by providing legal services to their clients. They have a contractual and commercial relationship with the clients. Since they are contractual relationships, they should be honest and trustworthy. Since they are entrusted to the clients, they should be loyal to them and seek in the existing institutional framework. The way to maximize its benefits. The commercial nature of the lawyer profession inevitably requires that the value guide of the lawyer profession is to maximize the interests of the parties. Only by maximizing the interests of the clients can the commercial value of the lawyer profession be reflected. There is no doubt that lawyers aim to maximize the interests of the clients. "Lawyers must protect the legitimate interests of the parties" is just a beautiful assumption under the ideal of the law. Careful scrutiny hides a logical error in it. Just like the "innocent assumption" theory, since "the lawful judgment of the people's court is not allowed to anyone Determined to be guilty". So what is a legitimate interest must be defined by the final judicial decision, because the function of a lawyer is not to assist the court in discovering the truth of the case. When accepting an entrustment, the lawyer can only know the case through his own party. The function of the lawyer is to act as the spokesperson of one party, innately standing. From the standpoint of one's own party, he is not the ultimate judge. If what he strives for is not the maximization of the interests of the parties, but the legal rights or social justice, shouldn't he go on his behalf and confuse himself with the judges? How can we win the trust of the parties by putting social justice above the interests of the parties? Therefore, lawyers seek to maximize the interests of the parties. It is the basic social value and prerequisite for the existence of the lawyer profession.
2. Lawyers must maintain social fairness and justice. This social responsibility is a mission entrusted to lawyers by the law and a "red hat" that distinguishes the lawyer industry from other industries. Fairness and justice is the "backer" behind lawyers---the core value of the law. Lawyers use this to win the trust and respect of the public. Maintaining social fairness and justice is the expectation of the public. Social fairness and justice can be called the "backbone of lawyers." Lawyers maintain social justice from the perspective of the lawyer profession as a whole, so the "backbone" may not be related to the "economic foundation" of individual lawyers, but It is related to the social status and future development direction of the legal profession. Without a "backbone", lawyers will lose social credibility and social respect, and lose a good social image, leading to the low social status of the overall lawyer industry, the marginalization of the industry, and even the "lower" industry in society. If lawyers stay away from or abandon fairness and justice to pursue the interests of the parties, they will use all means in order to win the case, or even "do everything they can", and they will only quench their thirst by drinking a dove.
Third, lawyers cannot make a choice between the interests of the parties and social justice. This conflict is also the cause of professional ethical dilemmas. Lawyers can only find a balance between the two. Because the conflict between the interests of the parties and social justice cannot be resolved by lawyers, it is impossible to maintain substantive justice if it is understood that “lawyers are not the ultimate judge”. Then the source and resolution of such conflicts will become clear, and this balance is procedural justice. In the balance of procedural justice, the conflict between the interests of the parties and social justice can be fairly put to the final judicial judgment. "Justice must not only be achieved, but also achieved in a visible way." What lawyers maintain is only the "visible way." Lawyers’ methods and methods for maximizing the interests of their clients should always remain within the legal channels and within the legal framework. Maximize the interests of the parties on the premise that they are legitimate and sensible in accordance with the public interest of the society. Therefore, the social justice maintained by lawyers is procedural justice, or lawyers achieve substantive justice indirectly by maintaining procedural justice. Lawyers are not the ultimate judge, and lawyers cannot directly maintain substantive justice. "When there is a conflict between procedural justice and substantive justice, lawyers are neither the angels of justice nor the evil devil. Lawyers do not represent any party. All lawyers have to do is to participate in the entire judicial process through the procedures prescribed by law and use themselves. Professional knowledge to realize and embody the justice value of procedure." Lawyers should adhere to a professional ethical principle that "does not necessarily serve substantive justice, but must obey procedural justice". In any case, as long as one party's lawyer is on the side that violates the substantive justice, the other party's lawyer must be on the side that conforms to the substantive justice. If lawyers are regarded as advocates of noble morals who pursue the justice of social entities, the profession of lawyers will lose the value of existence, and the defense required by this profession cannot be realized, because it is impossible to be a advocate of noble morals. Make a legitimate defense with the party representing the entity's justice.
Of course, the defense of social justice by lawyers is supplementary and limited, and it is the public, procuratorate, and law and other state agencies that play a decisive role in maintaining social justice. However, the lawyer system is also the basic system of a society under the rule of law. As an indispensable part of a society under the rule of law, lawyers and the legal profession need to grow and develop. Therefore, on the arduous and long road to the rule of law, lawyers need to be commercial to build a “material for growth”. "Foundation" needs to come from the spiritual power of social justice.
