陈则民与民初上海律师公会改选

Chen Zemin and the Re-election of the Shanghai Bar Association in the Early Republic of China

上海律师公会是在江苏三个律师公会团体基础上建立起来的。陈则民是该会创始成员,他利用私人关系逐步主导公会领导层。第二次担任会长期间,陈则民在其兄陈福民特权庇护之下公然触法,激化江苏审检机关内部矛盾,进而引起司法部整顿律师业。基于律师回避条例,陈则民被改派到江宁执业,匆促推定与其关系密切的杨景斌继任会长。1917年底,陈则民回到上海后试图重新夺取公会领导权,却遭到有意蝉联的新任会长蔡倪培抵制。双方权争导致公会组织走向松散。此后几年,公会经常因“投票权方式”和“参会人数”等问题出现流会现象。面对公会的混乱,负责监督的司法行政机关也不主动调解。最后,离任的司法次长张一鹏成为各方均可接受的会长人选,公会纠纷暂时停息。但这并未从根本上解决公会的离心倾向,对公会从会长制转向委员制产生了重要影响。

The Shanghai Bar Association was established on the basis of three lawyers groups in Jiangsu Province.Chen Zemin,a founding member,used his personal connections to gradually control the association.During his second term as president,Chen Zemin violated the law under the privilege of his brother Chen Fumin,which intensified the internal contradictions of the Jiang-su procuratorate and caused the Ministry of Justice to rectify the lawyer profession.Based on the lawyer recusal regulations,Chen Zemin was reassigned to practice in Jiangning,and his friend Yang Jingbin was hurriedly promoted to be the successor.At the end of 1917,after returning to Shanghai,Chen Zemin tried to regain the leadership of the association,but was resisted by Cai Nipei,the new president who wanted to be re-elected.The power struggle between Chen and Cai caused the association to be disorganized.In the following years,the association often had stray meetings due to issues such as“voting rights”and“number of participants”.Facing the association’s disorganization,the judicial administrative organ responsible for supervision did not take the initiative to mediate.In the end,Zhang Yipeng,the outgoing Deputy Minister of Justice,became an acceptable candidate for the president of all parties,and the disputes were temporarily suspended.However,it did not fundamentally solve the centrifugal tendency,which had an im portant impact on the Shanghai Bar Association from the president system to the committee sys-tem.