A Study On Government Procurement Of Public Legal Services In Hangzhou

Institutionalization of public services is a major theoretical and practical issue of public service supply and service-oriented government. In recent years, Hangzhou has expanded the coverage of legal advocacy, legal services, legal assistance and people’s mediation, and established a series of integrated public legal services platforms, extending legal services to the grassroots level and vulnerable groups. Especially the public legal service project—"lawyers into the community"—arried out in2009, has provided basic legal services for the majority of urban and rural residents through government procurement, and has achieved great results. In the context of building a socialist country ruled by law, building a harmonious society and innovation of social management, it has become the demand of the times and our inevitable choice to standardize the processes of government procurement of public legal services, and build a comprehensive public legal service system in Hangzhou. This article clarifies the concept, scope and theoretical basis of public services and public legal services, and then analyzes the status and problems of government procurement of public legal services in Hangzhou, and puts forward a series of legislative and policy proposals. This article emphasizes that it is government’s responsibility to provide citizens the necessary, basic, and high quality public legal services (products); every government department should contribute to accelerate the construction of "service-oriented government".