Opinions on Accelerating the Building of a Public Legal Service System

Opinions on Accelerating the Building of a Public Legal Service System
Opinions on Accelerating the Building of a Public Legal Service System

July 10, 2019

Public legal services are an important and integral part of governments' public functions, an important initiative to protect and improve people's wellbeing, and a fundamental, service and supportive work to comprehensively advance the rule of law. To promote the building of a public legal service system is of great significance for better meeting the ever-growing needs of the broad masses of people for a better life and improving the level of modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. The following opinions are hereby put forward with a view to accelerating the building of a public legal service system and comprehensively improving the public legal service capability and level.

I. General Requirements
1. Guiding ideology. We shall, take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, fully implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and the 2nd and the 3rd Plenary Sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee, adhere to the people-centered concept of development, and follow the requirements for coordinated promotion of the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy, vigorously advance the core socialist values, focus on satisfying the yearning of the masses of people for a better life and the ever-growing legal service needs, and accelerate the building of a modern public legal service system which covers urban and rural areas and is of convenience, efficiency equality and general benefit, so as to effectively enhance the sense of gain, happiness and security of masses of people.
2. Basic principles. We shall, adhere to the CPC's leadership and perpetuate the CPC's leadership throughout the process and all aspects in the building of a public legal service system; adhere to people's principal position and benefit all people with more achievements in the building of a public legal service system in a fairer way; adhere to the leading role of the government and the participation of the society, implement the principal responsibility of the government for promoting the building of a public legal service system, and stimulate the enthusiasm of various private sectors to be involved in public legal services; adhere to reform and innovation and overall coordination, innovate the content, form and supply model of public legal services, integrate and optimize various legal service resources and promote the co-building and sharing of resources.
3. Main targets.
We aim to, by 2022, basically establish a modern public legal service system which covers urban and rural areas and is of convenience, efficiency, equality and general benefit; continuously improve the public legal service institutional mechanism, effectively exert the service platform functions, achieve the full coverage and interconnectivity of service network facilities, basically establish a standardized and normalized public legal service system, continuously advance the equalization of basic public legal services for urban and rural areas, and increasingly raise the quality and level of basic public legal services enjoyed by masses of people.
We aim to, by 2035, basically establish a public legal service system that is commensurate with the basic target for building a law-based country, a law-based government and a law-based society; achieve a full-coverage public legal service network, a sounder service mechanism, a high quality and efficient service supply and a solid and powerful service guarantee, basically realize the balanced development of basic public legal services, dramatically enhance the masses' satisfaction for and the social credibility of legal services, and basically realize the sharing of public legal service achievements by masses of people.

II. Promote the Balanced Development of Basic Public Legal Services
4. Balance the allocation of basic public legal service resources in urban and rural areas. We shall, lower the threshold for legal aid, expand the scope of legal aid, strengthen the building of infrastructures such as public legal service entity platform, hotline platform and network platform to improve service conditions; enhance the building of primary-level positions for publicity of laws and people's mediation organizations to improve the service network; give full play to the role of judicial offices in coordinating the resolution of conflicts and disputes, publicity of the rule of law, primary-level legal services and legal consulting, etc., exert the role of lawyers and primary-level legal service work personnel, improve the village (residential) legal advisor system, and accelerate the full coverage of village (residential) legal advisors; vigorously develop county-level notarization related legal service, organize notaries to take various forms such as circuit certificate handling, online certificate handling, and certificate handling at a selected spot to carry out notarization consultation and business handling in primary level.
5. Strength the building of public legal services in underdeveloped regions. We shall, make overall use of the Central Government's fiscal transfer payment funds and other financial channels to strengthen the funds support for public legal services, and give preference to underdeveloped regions, especially old revolutionary base areas, areas with large ethnic minority populations, border areas and poverty-stricken areas; focus on the building of a public legal service platform, the training of legal service personnel and the building of village (residential) legal advisors, etc., implement a number of legal service poverty alleviation projects in a centralized manner, and include service items that are within the scope of duties of the government and suitable for being provided through market-oriented ways into the scope of government procurement of services and guide social forces to participate in the provision of such services; establish and improve an institutional mechanism for cross-regional mobility of legal service resources in accordance with the law, support the building of law firms in underdeveloped regions, and encourage legal service agencies such as law firms to set up branches in underdeveloped regions; encourage legal service agencies in developed regions to support the development of those in underdeveloped regions through counterpart aid construction, secondment for getting experience as well as communication and training, etc.; strengthen policy support for the introduction of legal service professionals and volunteers in underdeveloped regions, continuously promote "1 plus 1" legal service volunteer activities, and support the use of internet, etc.
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