Examination of Foreign Legal Aid Systems and Their Operating Mechanisms

Abstract

The extraterritorial experience of legal aid mechanisms should also be examined in a dynamic and practical manner. It is impossible to understand the actual system of a country on the basis of its legislative texts or the jurisprudence of its courts. As Ehrman, a famous comparative law researcher, emphasized, “When comparing, it is possible to know what must be functionally compared rather than just words. No matter how serious it is, it cannot be based only on legal provisions. No matter how clear and explicit it is, we must observe its actual effects.” Therefore, it is necessary to use the “five pairs of relationships” that support China's legal aid operation mechanism as the basic analytical framework to examine the basic experience of representative extraterritorial countries' legal aid operation mechanisms, and present their normative structure and practice. In order to objectively analyze the advantages and ingrained habits of the extraterritorial legal aid system, and reconsider the interrelationships between the five entities of the government, legal aid agencies, aid lawyers, aid recipients, and case handling agencies.