In Singapore, the extension of justice must fundamentally ensure that high -quality judicial services are not a patent for a few people, but that all Chinese people and people living here can get it.

The Public Defender's Office, which opened by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, opened in early December last year, aims to significantly improve Singapore's criminal legal aid.

This will allow more poverty defendants to get full and high -quality legal consultation, as well as representing lawyers to defend themselves, and then enhance their trust and confidence in the criminal judicial system.This also affirmed Singapore's commitment to the rule of law.

No matter whether the defendant deny crime or requests his allegations to interrogate, criminal judicial procedures must not only be fair, but also let people see that it is fair.

Before legally deprives a person's freedom or life, criminal judicial procedures need to carefully review the facts and situations related to the crime of being accused.It also examines their responsibilities by reviewing the behavior of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors and determining whether they have committed crimes.

By increasing lawyers defending the defendant with full -time, the public defenders' office can help reduce the phenomenon of "Inequality of ARMS" in the criminal judicial system.In addition, as the family income of the assistance target is limited, from the previous minimum 25 percentage level, the minimum to the minimum of 35 percentage levels will meet the conditions of obtaining criminal legal aid.

The scope of legal aid to all crimes of non -dead execution will also benefit more defendants.However, government departments such as DEPARTMENTAL CARGE, such as traffic tickets, littering garbage and illegal parking, as well as illegal cases such as gambling and betting, organizational and gangs, and terrorist cases listed in some laws.Nothing is eligible for applying for legal aid.

These decree aims to curb specific behaviors that bring serious negative impacts to society, so related crimes are not included in the scope of legal aid.

It is necessary for legal services for free, but not enough

To ensure that justice can be stretched in our society, it is not enough to rely on the goodwill of voluntary lawyers.Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS) is still crucial.According to CLAS, the obligations lawyer provided a crime listed in 17 laws and provided defense to the defendant, including non -citizen.

The government has guaranteed that even if there is a public defendant's office, CLAS will continue to implement it.Although the government has played a leading role in criminal legal aid work, the Singapore Lawyers Association must meet the challenges and reiterate their commitments to provide free services.

Singapore provides criminal legal aid in a hybrid mode not only necessary, but also brings many benefits.We cannot treat the legal aid of the poor as a matter of course.

The establishment of the

Public defender's office provides sustainable and sufficient funds for criminal legal aid.In addition, CLAS ensures the spirit of unpaid services and reflects the time and professional knowledge of lawyers to help vulnerable groups in the society.

It is wrong to treat the relationship between the public defenders' office and CLAS as competitors.The establishment of the office of the public defenders does not mean that the work of unpaid work is meaningless.Instead, it should stimulate people's more interest in engaging in criminal law and unpaid work.Among the public defenders, there will be more legal practitioners who can participate in criminal judicial work throughout the job and improve the quality of the defendant's legal representatives.

In addition, as the enhanced version of criminal legal aid becomes more well -known, the demand for unpaid services may increase.The work of the Criminal Lawyer Association and the Public defender's office will only increase.

For example, from April 2020 to March 2021, the government directly funded 712 cases of the criminal legal aid plan.With the increase of family income and the expansion of the scope of the planned crimes, this number is expected to increase by more than half.

The establishment of the

Public defender's office has gone through a twists and turns.When the David Marshall government promulgated legal aid and consulting regulations in 1956 (the predecessor of legal aid and consulting law in 1956), it has considered providing legal aid for criminal and civil cases.

However, the provisions related to criminal cases were shelved and subsequently abolished because people believe that the use of public resources to prosecute and defend the same defendant is inappropriate.

The government has never funded criminal defense.Therefore, the public defendant's office opened on December 1 last year represents the government's significant change in concept.

In 2007, the government began to provide indirect criminal legal aid by funding the annual funding of the Law Society Pro Bono Services.Since 2015, the government has provided direct funding for the defendant of criminal cases through CLAS.

Minister of the Interior and Minister of Justice, Shang Morgan, said in a statement of the Minister of the Congress in April last April that the government is setting up a public defendant office to strengthen the opportunity to resort to judicial by the disadvantaged group.The office of the public defenders will help the institutionalization of public defense in Singapore's criminal judicial system.

Funding funding is very important

If it cannot be effectively resorted to the legal system, the law is likely to become a papers, which is a kind of non -difficulty for a system of pursuing the rule of law.In addition, if there is no sufficient judicial approach, the legislature will promulgate the work of promoting common interests, and it will become futile, and the vision of the rule of law society will become illusory.

We should also consider fully obtaining legal aid as a practice of consolidating social capital, which helps to maintain a sense of belonging to society through the internalization of community norms that Chinese people have internalized.In other words, the extension of justice is an indispensable part of social capital and trust.

Looking forward to the future, while ensuring justice and the quality of legal aid, it is important to maintain cost sustainability.Other jurisdictions are facing unsustainable costs. Wealthy defendants accept criminal legal aid. Examples of blatant abuse of systems abound.

In some cases, this has led to the sudden reduction in funding for criminal legal aid, which hinders the real weak groups to obtain legal aid.Therefore, it is necessary to formulate strong guarantee measures to ensure accountability and prevent abuse.The criminal legal aid plan and the office of the public defenders must cooperate closely to avoid unnecessary overlap of legal services.

Public defender is a new concept in Singapore.Therefore, public education is important for the public to correctly understand the role and work of public defender, as well as the basic principles of supporting Singapore's criminal justice.These basic principles include: a person is innocent before being proven to be guilty; the prosecution must prove his argument without reasonable doubts; and the right to obtain a fair interrogation.

It is foreseeable that some controversial cases will be defended by the public defender's office.However, this does not mean that the defendant should not have the opportunity to defend.Let the public judge the case before trial, and let the public anger decide whether to provide criminal legal aid is a catering of the righteousness of the mobs and must be resisted.

Although the public has strong emotions for controversial cases, the office of the public defender must perform their duties fearlessly and selflessly.Although the office of the public defender is a department of the Ministry of Justice, the legitimacy and status depends on it as independent of the government administrative department, especially who can obtainCriminal aid, and how to defend the defendant.

Any interference in how to fulfill the function of the public defendant's office will undermine its reputation and autonomy, and seriously damage the work of promoting criminal justice and the rule of law.

In Singapore's independence historical process, especially in the past 10 years, the way to obtain judicial assistance has been significantly expanded, and legal aid is an indispensable part of it.This is the correct approach, which reflects social values and expectations.Strengthening justice should be regarded as the key to maintaining social capital.It is essential to have a healthy criminal legal aid system that is affordable, convenient and high -quality, which is essential to achieve effective criminal justice and social welfare.In this regard, we cannot compromise.