Prominent rights defense lawyers Cheng Hai (程海) and Li Subin (李苏濱) were asked to leave their positions at the Beijing Yitong Law Firm on October 30, 2008. They are among 35 lawyers who published an appeal on the Internet on August 26, 2008, calling for direct election of the officials of the state-...

Human Rights in China is deeply concerned that the revised Lawyers Law (律师法), which came into force on June 1, 2008, is already falling short of its goal to "protect the practice of law by lawyers" because of flawed local implementation and the continued abuse by the authorities of China’s highly...