What Kind of Criminal Legal Aid System does China Need

Modern criminal procedure has a presupposition that all cases involve defense lawyers. When a suspect or defendant is not able to afford a lawyer,the legal aid system becomes an important channel to provide professional assistance. Although the 2012 amendment to China's Criminal Procedure Law expanded the scope of criminal legal aid and extended criminal legal aid from first instance trial stage to pretrial investigation stage,a universal and prompt legal aid system is still in distance,so the scope of criminal legal aid should be expanded and an effective guaranteeing system should be established. Given the unbalance situation of lawyer resource regional distribution,establishing a China style public defender system,rational allocating lawyer resource in specific area,or including the basic level legal service persons to the criminal legal aid subject will meet the need of China's criminal legal aid practice.