For years there has been an interesting debate in Europe about whether protections for lawyers’ rights should be strengthened. The Council of Europe (CoE), which covers 47 member states including the UK, is considering whether continuing attacks on lawyers call for a new legal
The report’s next useful function is to gather into one place a list, followed by an analysis and comparison, of the existing international standards on lawyers. There are not that many – the principal ones being the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the CoE’s 2000 recommendation, the casework of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and the charters and principles of organisations such as the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe and the International Bar Association.
