The Irish legal system will be comparable to that of countries like China, Gambia or Vietnam if the Legal Services Regulation Bill is passed unchanged, according to the director of the International Bar Association (IBA), the international representative body for lawyers.
The IBA was prepared to consider convening a high-profile fact-finding mission to come to Ireland and examine whether the legal profession was under attack, Dr Mark Ellis told The Irish Times.
He is in Dublin along with the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Bill Robinson, and the incoming president of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, Marcella Prunbauer-Glaser, to speak at a seminar on the independence of the legal profession this afternoon.
All three warned that this will be severely compromised if the proposed Bill, published in October, is enacted as it stands. This will place Ireland outside the norms of developed democratic states, they told The Irish Times.
Dr Ellis described the Bill as one of the most extensive and far-reaching attempts in the world by the executive to control the legal profession. “There is very little light between the Government and the profession,” he said.
“The IBA tends to focus its attention on developing countries. In my 11 years in the IBA I never remember something like this coming from a democratic and developed country. Lawyers must function without external interference. This is indispensable to the administration of justice and the rule of law.”
He pointed to Article 24 of the UN’s Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which states lawyers should be entitled to form self-governing professional associations to represent their interests, promote their continuing education and training and protect their professional integrity. Under the proposed Bill these functions would be taken over by a body dominated by Government nominees, he said.
“The IBA is holding its international meeting here in October next,” he said. “It would be unfortunate if we were bringing this major event to a country that was struggling with the independence of the profession.”
Ms Prunbauer-Glaser said the CCBE was deeply concerned about the “unprecedented encroachment on the independence of the bar” and had prepared a position paper on the Bill that it was submitting for discussion. It had also asked the EU Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding, to raise the matter with Commissioner Rehn, who is responsible for the EU’s input into Ireland’s bailout, she said, and Commissioner Reding had agreed to write to him.
The proposals not only contravened the UN’s Basic Principles, but also the Council of Europe’s recommendations on the freedom of lawyers and a resolution of the European Parliament on the legal profession, which reaffirmed the importance of its independence.
“This is important, not because of lawyers, but because of clients and society in general,” she said. “There are judgments of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights stating that the independence of the legal profession is correlated to the independence of the judiciary.”
“What is really at stake here for the people of Ireland is constitutional democracy,” Mr Robinson said. “The public should be warned against allowing one man to anoint himself with virtually exclusive authority over the legal profession. History has taught us that the independence of the legal profession is the key to an independent judiciary which is the key to freedom.
“What this Bill will do is compromise the fiduciary relationship between the lawyer and his or her client.”
Mr Robinson attended the Global Economic Forum in Dublin last October and said he saw there the importance of foreign investment for the revitalisation of the economy. “Ultimately this will have a chilling effect on economic development,” he said. “It is hard to imagine investors being pleased to invest in a country where they are unable to get independent counsel, legal representation that only owes fiduciary responsibility to the corporation in any dispute that may arise with the State.”
The ABA would continue to monitor the situation and would be available to provide comment on the Bill. “Freedom is at stake and we can do no less,” he said.
Ms Prunbauer-Glaser pointed out that local, European and global voices were expressing the same concerns about a unique situation for a democratic country.