[1] The term is a variation of the "barefoot doctor"—farmers with minimal formal training who nonetheless provided essential medical services in rural China during the Mao era.
[2][3][4] Since the legal reforms of the late 1970s and 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party has moved to embrace the language of the rule of law and establish a modern court system.
Although they lack the training and professionalism of lawyers, they serve an irreplaceable function of providing "convenient, approachable, and free services" without political constraints, according to You-Tien Hsing and Ching Kwan Lee.
[6][9] Barefoot lawyers are known for taking on controversial or politically sensitive cases, such as tackling illegal land grabs, corruption and abuse of power, or environmental disputes.
Among the notable cases taken on by Weiquan lawyers include Chen Guangcheng's effort in 2000 to mobilize 79 villages in his native Shandong Province to petition against a paper mill that had been polluting a river, killing wildlife and ruining crops.
[11] Chen later earned international recognition for initiating a class-action lawsuit against the staff of a family planning clinic in Shandong province that allegedly forced thousands of people to undergo sterilization or to abort pregnancies.
[7] Due to the nature of cases barefoot lawyers sometimes take on—which include challenging official corruption, organizing against abuses of power, or defending victims of forced eviction—they are sometimes met with punitive reprisals by authorities.