社區法律中心──「多元法扶」的建構及實踐

Community Legal Centers: Towards a Society with Diversity of Legal Aid Systems

臺灣於2004 年制定的法律扶助法，設置財團法人法律扶助基金會，統籌全國的法扶事務。現行法扶制度，主要是將扶助個案委由私人執行律師擔任法扶提供者，與英國式的「個案法扶系統」（judicare scheme）較相近，雖有聘用專職律師或與其他行政部門合作進行扶助專案，但似均未充分達到美國式的法律扶助制度所具有的政策倡議及法律改革之功能。本文介紹英國、美國、加拿大、澳洲等國家約在1970 年代前後開始所展現的第二波法扶制度改革，為填補結構性的法扶漏洞，針對既有的「個案法扶系統」所無法達到的目標，以具有特定領域、關心之族群或議題的「社區法律中心」（community legal centers）為主軸，由政府提撥經費支持多元的法扶組織，讓法律扶助不只協助個案，更研究整體結構問題，進行政策及修法倡議、社區組織及教育等工作，實踐「多元法扶」的理念，值得吾國法扶制度進一步發展的參考。

Taiwan established the modern legal aid system in 2004, and the practice of legal aid in Taiwan is closer to the “judicare” legal aid scheme of England. The affairs of legal aid are managed nationwide by the Taiwan Legal Aid Foundation (“the Foundation”), and the main legal aid providers are private professionals assigned by the Foundation. Although the Foundation also hires some staff-attorneys and cooperates with some other agencies for particular projects, the goals of policy advocate and law reform are not fully achieved. The paper introduces the second waves of reform on legal aid system since mid-20th century in England, United States, Canada and Australia, in which the organizations such as community legal centers are set up to satisfy the unmet need for legal services. Community legal centers will not only pay attentions to the assistance on particular cases for lawsuits, but also pursue the goals of legal aid on law reform, policy making and organization and education of people and communities at different areas of laws. The paper suggests that the Foundation as well as the society and government of Taiwan shall pay attention to the necessity of second waves of legal aid reform for solving the problems of unmet legal need. The picture of diversity of legal aid systems may be carried out if we could learn the experiences from the history of development of community legal centers in other countries.