Jizhou District Bureau of Justice special research village (resident) legal counsel work.
Zhang Wei (first from right) had an in-depth exchange on legal issues with "people who understand the law".
Zhou Lianjun (middle) went to the village to understand the social situation and people's feelings. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Tianjin North Network News: Grassroots governance, rule of law first; Good law and good governance are what the people want.
With the in-depth implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, the people of Jizhou District have a growing demand for public legal services that cover urban and rural areas, are equal and inclusive, convenient and efficient. As an important part of the establishment of the public legal service system, village (resident) legal counsel work is an important carrier for extending judicial administrative work to the grassroots level and serving the people. However, the shortage of local practicing lawyers, the aging of grassroots legal workers, and the inability of legal service capabilities to keep up with the development needs have become bottlenecks restricting the high-quality development of village (residential) legal counsel work in Jizhou District.
Based on the existing conditions, how to accelerate the upgrading of the work of village (resident) legal counsel in the whole region, from "tangible coverage" to "effective coverage"?
Since October last year, the Jizhou District Bureau of Justice has listed the strong promotion of the quality and efficiency of the work of village (resident) legal counsel in the district as the "number one" project. After full investigation and repeated argumentation, a new path has been explored and practiced to tap the potential within the party and government organs, to include public lawyers in party and government organs in the scope of appointment of village (resident) legal advisers, and to promote public lawyers to provide public legal services in villages (residents).
Establish rules and regulations
Smooth the path of public lawyer services
Jizhou District has a total of 27 townships (streets), under the jurisdiction of 949 administrative villages and 32 communities, the number of villages (residences) in the forefront of the city.
In accordance with the principle that village (resident) legal advisers should not be used cross-fertally between towns, and that the number of village (resident) legal advisers serving each village (resident) should not exceed 5, the district needs to hire at least 214 village (resident) legal advisers. However, due to factors such as age and physical condition, there are only 119 practicing lawyers and legal workers who can be used locally, and there is a shortage of 95 village (resident) legal advisers. In addition to the 70 practicing lawyers in Jizhou District, Nankai District needs to coordinate another 25 legal professionals to serve as village (resident) legal advisers.
If even the most basic personnel problems cannot be solved, and legal counsel cannot be properly assigned to each village (residence) in accordance with regulations, it will be impossible to talk about extending equal, inclusive, convenient, and efficient public legal services to the grassroots level. Based on the actual work of Jizhou District, how can we effectively fill the gap of legal counsel personnel without increasing the financial burden?
Cao Hongmin, director of the Jizhou District Bureau of Justice, said that the team of public lawyers in the party and government organs in the region is a huge group, and the selection of some outstanding public lawyers to serve as village (resident) legal advisers should effectively alleviate the dilemma of the shortage of local legal talents. However, this path was originally just a bold idea, and can it gain the understanding and support of various party and government organs and the vast number of public lawyers? Can a public lawyer be competent for the specific duties of a village (resident) legal adviser? Does the appointment of a public lawyer as a village (resident) legal adviser conform to the policy provisions of the higher authorities? These were unknown at the time, and they needed to be implemented on a case-by-case basis.
"We quickly found out the basic situation of public lawyers in the whole region, solicited the opinions of the competent departments at higher levels, and understood the wishes of the public lawyers' units and individuals...... A series of actions were quickly organized and carried out. After in-depth study, the path of arranging for public lawyers to serve as village (resident) legal advisers is effective and feasible. Cao Hongmin said.
After clarifying the ideas and finding the right direction, the leadership team of the Jizhou District Judicial Bureau acted quickly and went deep into the public lawyer units, grassroots judicial offices and village (resident) frontlines to carry out systematic research, and comprehensively investigated all kinds of new situations and new problems that public lawyers may encounter when serving as village (resident) legal counsel.
Combined with the results of the investigation, the bureau repeatedly researched and revised it many times, and formulated and issued the "Implementation Plan of the Jizhou District Bureau of Justice on Further Strengthening and Regulating the Work of Village (Resident) Legal Counsel", clarifying the service content, standardizing service behavior, refining service guarantees, establishing an assessment mechanism, improving the training system, and doing a solid job in the establishment of rules and regulations for public lawyers to serve as village (resident) legal advisers.
With the "whole chain" opening up the various difficulties, blockages, and doubts that public lawyers need to solve when serving as village (resident) legal counsel, there is a solid institutional foundation for long-term promotion of public lawyers to provide legal services in villages (residents).
Convergence and blending
Promote the substantive resolution of difficult problems
After voluntary registration and organizational selection, the Jizhou District Judicial Bureau selected 25 outstanding public lawyers from all party and government organs in the district as village (resident) legal advisers, effectively filling the personnel gap in the work of village (resident) legal advisers in the whole district.
In order to achieve the work results of "1+1>2", it is an important principle for the Jizhou District Judicial Bureau to arrange public lawyers' village (resident) legal counsel to serve the township (street) and Baobao village (residence) by fully considering the integration and coexistence of the job responsibilities of public lawyers and the responsibilities of village (resident) legal counsel.
"Officer Zhou, your work unit is at the Chuanfangyu Police Station, so let's arrange for you to serve in Chuanfangyu Town." The staff of the Jizhou District Judicial Bureau called public lawyer Zhou Lianjun.
The years pass like a song, and time will never come again. Zhou Lianjun is an ordinary policeman from the Chuanfangyu Police Station, from youth to gray temples, he has been a police officer for more than 30 years, and his original intention of taking root in the grassroots and serving the grassroots has never changed.
After learning that Jizhou District was about to explore the practice of public lawyers entering the village (residence) to provide legal services, Zhou Lianjun did not hesitate to apply to the Jizhou District Judicial Bureau and voluntarily signed up to participate.
At the beginning of this year, he was arranged to serve as legal counsel in Beitaitou Village and Xiaoxinzhuang Village in Chuanfangyu Town. He took the initiative to take the position and learned about the content of legal services and related requirements from the resident judicial office as soon as possible; He is close to the grassroots level, organically integrates police work with the duties of village (resident) legal counsel, and often goes to the village to solve the people's "troubles".
In addition to his busy police work, Zhou Lianjun has entered the village many times to provide legal services, and has won high recognition and widespread praise from the cadres and masses of Baobao Village (residence).
"Officer Zhou, Lao Yang went to Lao Zhang's door and shouted, he was very emotional, and threatened that Lao Zhang would do it if he didn't pay off the compensation, if our village didn't find out and stop it in time, the consequences would be unimaginable. Let's see if you can do ideological work for them, and don't let the situation develop out of control! A village cadre found Zhou Lianjun and said.
Not long ago, a conflict and dispute between neighbors occurred in a village in Chuanfangyu Town. The reason for the incident is as follows: In April 2019, villager Lao Yang accidentally fell from a ladder while decorating the ceiling of Lao Zhang's house, a villager in the same village, and his body was injured and he was disabled. According to the court's judgment, Lao Zhang should compensate Lao Yang 90,000 yuan. However, because there was no property in the name of the person subject to execution, Lao Yang did not receive the compensation after several years, so he chose to go to the door with a weapon to make trouble in a hurry.
After Zhou Lianjun learned of this, he took the initiative to find Lao Yang. "Disturbing the door will not substantively solve your claims, and if you injure the other party in the course of the conflict or even cause more serious consequences, you will be detained in accordance with the law, and it will not do anything to solve the problem you want to solve." From the perspective of the police, he explained to Lao Yang in a serious manner the serious consequences that armed people may bring to themselves.
"In accordance with the relevant provisions of civil litigation enforcement cases, as an enforcement applicant, it has the obligation to provide evidence and clues related to the enforceable property of the person subject to enforcement, and once it is found that the other party has enforceable property, it may immediately report to the court to apply for enforcement." From the perspective of a lawyer, he also explained to Lao Yang how to protect his rights in accordance with the law through legitimate channels and how to use legal weapons to apply for property enforcement.
After patient persuasion, Lao Yang's antagonistic emotions were significantly alleviated, and he stated on the spot that he would resolve his claims through legal channels, and expressed high recognition and sincere thanks to Zhou Lianjun for his professional answers. Zhou Lianjun successfully resolved the neighborhood conflict and dispute that could lead to a serious social security incident.
Cultivating talents and strengthening the foundation
Consolidate the foundation of grassroots governance in accordance with the law
"Xu Suo, there are many contradictions and disputes in our village, and the 'people who understand the law' are a little inadequate, do you have any good methods?" Xu Zipeng, director of the village committee of a village in Hewan Town, found Jizhou District Judicial Bureau, and Xu Zipeng, director of the Zhouhewan Judicial Office, said.
Zhouhewan Town is located in the connection zone between Jizhou urban area and economic development zone, and is the only urbanization management township in Jizhou District with relocated residents as the main body.
"People who understand the law" are village (resident) residents who have undergone rule of law training and take the lead in carrying out legal popularization and publicity, and participate in the practice of the rule of law, usually have a certain amount of legal knowledge, and are a grassroots legal popularization and law-based governance work force that can be found, used, and often present in the village (residence) by the masses. They play an important role in educating and guiding the broad masses of the people to act according to the law, to find the law when encountering problems, to solve problems and to use the law, and to resolve contradictions and rely on the law.
However, it is undeniable that they come from the front line of villages (residences) and have not received systematic and in-depth professional training, and the outstanding problems of low legal literacy and limited role play are still widespread. "The way is to raise the legal literacy and ability to perform duties of 'people who understand the law'." Xu Zipeng pondered silently in his heart.
The problem that "people who understand the law" do not understand is not only in Zhouhewan Town, which is at the junction of urban and rural areas, but also in the common problems encountered by towns (streets) in Jizhou District. There are 5,385 "people who understand the law" in Jizhou District, distributed in 949 administrative villages and 32 communities in 27 townships (streets) in the district, and their legal literacy and ability to perform their duties are directly related to the promotion process of the modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity.
How can we effectively improve the ability of "people who understand the law" to accurately serve the legal needs of the masses and resolve conflicts and disputes in a diversified manner?
Zhang Wei, deputy director of the Youguzhuang Judicial Office of the Jizhou District Judicial Bureau, gave a good way to solve this problem with practical actions - based on the responsibilities of judicial administrative positions and the legal advantages of public lawyers, we should solidly carry out the work of "1 village (resident) legal counsel" to drive the cultivation of "N legal understanding people".
"Zhang, your rule of law training course is rich in content, close to reality, and simple to understand, covering many legal needs such as marriage and family, private lending, labor disputes, land contracting, etc., which is very useful for us to better carry out mass work in the future." This is what the participants said to Zhang Wei after the special training meeting on "People Who Understand the Law" in Youguzhuang Town.
Zhang Wei said with satisfaction after hearing this: "'People who understand the law' is the new force in the construction of the rule of law and governance according to law at the grassroots level, as long as everyone needs it, I will take a more flexible and diverse way to normalize the project of cultivating 'people who understand the law'." Zhang Wei is also one of the first batch of 25 outstanding public lawyers village (resident) legal advisers selected in Jizhou District, and was arranged to serve as legal advisers in Beizhouzhuang Village and Dongxiaoxuzhuang Village in Youguzhuang Town at the beginning of this year.
As a judicial and administrative police officer, she pays attention to exploring the difficulties and blockages in the construction of rule of law villages, and actively becomes the organizer and promoter of grassroots public legal services; As a public lawyer and legal adviser, she took the initiative to shoulder the main responsibility of providing public legal services in villages (residents), and acted as the "navigator" and "guide" of the modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity.
According to reports, in the first batch of public lawyers' village (resident) legal counsel team, there are still many people like Zhang Wei, who are based on their own job responsibilities and legal advantages, and use their youth and sweat to build a solid talent foundation for the grassroots work of popularizing law and governing according to law.
Cao Hongmin said that promoting public lawyers to serve as legal advisers in villages (residences) is a useful attempt by the Jizhou District Judicial Bureau to strengthen the construction of the rule of law at the grassroots level, optimize public legal services, and empower grassroots governance according to law. By building a practice platform for public lawyers, it has achieved a "win-win" situation of making up for the lack of local legal service resources, enhancing the ability of public lawyers to perform their duties, saving government financial expenditures and improving the level of grassroots governance according to law, which is of great significance for accelerating the modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity, and provides a reference, replicable and generalizable Jizhou experience and Jizhou plan for the rule of law to empower the rural revitalization strategy.