Independence of the Legal Profession

The legal profession is a public function and a mandatory, independent, and autonomous element of the social structure that ensures the exercising of the constitutional right to professional legal assistance and the constitutional principles of adversarial proceedings and equality of the parties. It is not part of the state system, but along with the court ensures the rule of law and serves as an intermediary between civil society and the state. The diminishment of the role of the legal profession, violation of the rights of lawyers, and failure to ensure the true independence of the legal profession and advocacy delegitimizes justice and deprives it of the key characteristic as fairness in the public consciousness. The decorative nature of the independence of the legal profession (lack of real content in the principles of advocacy), in turn, contributes to the shaping of public opinion about the partiality of justice as a whole. As such, the principle of the independence of the legal profession should not only be properly implemented in legislation, but should also be under constant scrutiny by the judicial system itself. Does the public function of legal protection depend on the guaranteed independence of lawyers? Should a violation of lawyers’ rights be viewed as an encroachment on justice? To what extent does the violation of a defence attorney’s rights at any stage of criminal proceedings affect the legitimacy of the final court decision?