site.btaSofia Marks 100th Anniversary of Supreme Bar Council and Beginning of Independent, Self-Governing Legal Profession
The 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Supreme Bar Council and the beginning of an independent and self-governing Bulgarian legal profession was marked with a formal ceremony in Bulgaria Hall on Monday.
“The 1925 Bar Act laid the foundation for the independence of the Bulgarian bar,” said Supreme Bar Council Chair Ivaylo Dermendzhiev in his opening remarks. The event was attended by Constitutional Court judges, MPs, Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev, representatives of the legislative, executive and judicial branches. Actress Teodora Duhovnikova hosted the ceremony.
Congratulatory addresses were sent by President Rumen Radev, National Assembly Chair Raya Nazaryan, Constitutional Court Chair Pavlina Panova, Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva, acting Supreme Judicial Council Chair Boyan Magdalinchev, Sofia City Court Chair Rusi Aleksiev, and other court presidents across the country.
The Supreme Bar Council noted that the Bar Act adopted in 1925 was a key milestone in the history of the Bulgarian bar, as it introduced for the first time the principles of self-governance and self-regulation of the legal profession.
Before its adoption, the profession was regulated under the 1888 Bar Act, which did not establish a true corporate structure. Admission to the profession was managed by district courts, and disciplinary oversight was exercised by the judiciary. The 1925 Act fundamentally reformed this system and marked the beginning of the modern organisation of the Bulgarian bar.
Dermendzhiev said the 1925 law was introduced at a time when the governing authorities, facing political pressure, sought the support of the legal profession to reinforce societal values. “The lawyer has always been there to help people,” he added.
/RY/
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