(CFP)

Guo Xiaomin, deputy chief of Chongchuan District of Nantong, east China's Jiangsu Province, has formed a habit of consulting the district government's legal advisor before approving documents.

Legal counsel are helpful to the government, as they can make sure that policy statements are legal and unambiguous, he said.

Currently, all municipal and county governments in the province have legal advisory groups, and more than 900 lawyers have been hired as legal counsel, as recently reported Xinhua Daily, a local paper published in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu.

In addition to Jiangsu, many local governments across China have already hired legal counsel. As of August 2013, about 23,500 lawyers, or more than one 10th of the national total, had been hired by various levels of government as legal counsel, said Zhao Dacheng, Vice Minister of Justice.

Of these lawyers, 1,300 plus were hired by provincial-level governments, more than 8,100 by prefecture-level governments and more than 14,000 by county-level governments, he said.

Government legal counsels include legal scholars working in universities and research institutes and legal practioners, said Wen Yukai, Vice Chairman of China Society of Administrative Reform.

Establishing a system of legal counsel nationwide and improving the review mechanisms on regulations are among the major decisions adopted on November 12, 2013, at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Government departments not only enforce laws, but also make administrative laws and regulations, departmental rules and local rules, explained Qiao Xinsheng, Director of the Clean Governance Research Institute at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, based in Wuhan of central China's Hubei Province. If the legitimacy of laws and regulations are not examined, then the principle of popular sovereignty cannot be implemented, he said.

Legal counsel are serving the government in more and more areas, said Zhao. He said that initially, they acted as government agents in litigations and assisted it by reviewing important legal documents such as business contracts, while they now advise government on major decision making, and participate in the drafting and amendment of government documents, as well as negotiations with foreign investors.

Zhao said that in the future, the government legal counsel system will be further improved and expanded.

Playing a role

Involving lawyers in government departments' making of laws and regulations is important for guaranteeing scientific and democratic law-making, said Chen Zhen, a founding partner of Sunshine Law Firm headquartered in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

As a lawyer specializing in energy and environment laws, Chen has been invited by the national energy administration and local governments to participate in the drafting of dozens of laws and regulations.

"Some local and departmental regulations and rules are geared toward protecting local and departmental interests," she said. As legal counsel to the government, she believes that she should take a neutral stance and protect the interests of the general public, and in particular, vulnerable groups.

Xia Yanyan, a lawyer with Lihe Law Firm in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and legal counsel to Heilongjiang's Jidong County Government said that local government officials tend to focus on how to implement policies made by higher-level governments and promote local economic development.

He said lawyers can give legal perspective to government officials, which helps ensure rational decision-making.

Xia cited a case that he handled several years before. At that time, a foreign firm promised to invest $8 million into a state-owned firm in the county, and asked the county government to issue an irrevocable letter of guarantee for foreign investors.

County officials, eager to attract investment to spur local development, were eager to approve this request. But Xia strongly advised them to reject the request, for the law forbids the government from issuing such a letter of guarantee.