site.btaBulgaria to Sign Council of Europe Lawyer Profession Protection Treaty

The Council of Ministers on Wednesday approved the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer and mandated the Minister of Justice to sign it for Bulgaria subject to subsequent ratification.

The Convention establishes minimum standards for defending the rights and interests of individual lawyers and bar associations and, under specified circumstances, it extends s protective measures are applicable to lawyers who practise in a jurisdiction other than the one where they were originally authorized to exercise their profession. Some of the provisions of the Convention are applicable to persons other than members of the legal profession.

The international instrument establishes a number of legal guarantees for the exercise of the legal profession, including independence and self-governance of professional associations, promotion of access to the profession and continuing education and training, access to clients upon detention and active intervention in proceedings, right to confidentiality of lawyers' communications with their clients, and protective measures in situations where lawyers are being deprived of their liberty or are subject to search and seizure.

Despite the existence of other international legal instruments which similarly aim to ensure effective protection of the profession of lawyer, the Convention is expected to be the first international legally binding instrument in this area.