Members of the Lawyers Union consider the bill by which the MPs are allowed to work as lawyers without passing the bar exam first runs counter to the European and international norms and principles on legal practice. According to them, if this bill proposed by MPs is adopted, a precedent that does not exist in the EU member states will be set. Moreover, the Union members believe this initiative allows persons without the necessary training and with flawed reputation to become lawyers.
Boris Lichii, dean of the Balti Bar of the Lawyers Union, in a news conference at IPN, said that such an amendment will generate the danger of discrediting one of the main rule of law principles – qualified assistance offered to a person for defending his rights.
The doyen referred to the European legislation in the field. According to him, in some of the states, such as Belgium, Germany, Spain and Cyprus, the legislation does not provide alternative routes for entering the bar. In other states, persons with legal professions, such as judges, prosecutors and notaries, are admitted to the bar as their professional exam is considered equivalent to the bar exam. In other states, alternative routes of entering the bar are available to teachers or law and holders of the title of doctor or doctor habilitate of law.
Boris Lichii noted that the authors of the bill make reference to the practice and legislation of Germany, but Germany is one of the European states that do not have alternative routes of entering the bar. “In this regard, the arguments presented by the MPs in the bill to amend the legislation are absolutely irrelevant,” he stated.
The dean of the Balti Bar also said that the proposed supplements run counter to the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, concerning the freedom of practicing the law, and the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers adopted by the United Nations at the Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in September 1990.
The representatives of the Lawyers Union demand to withdraw the bill proposed by a group of MPs and to immediately examine the bill to amend the Law on Advocacy that was drafted by the Ministry of Justice in partnership with the Union and in coordination with the Council of Europe. They said that if the legislative initiative is passed by Parliament, the Union will mount protests and the lawyers of Moldova will go on a general strike.
