The preliminary draft Law on the Right of Defence, whose information and public consultation process has been opened today, significantly reinforces professional secrecy and the role of the collegiate institutions of the legal profession. This is how the General Council of Lawyers considers it after a first reading and analysis of the text approved by the Council of Ministers on August 30 and made public today.
Although the draft bill was already demanded by some of the Legal Profession, such as the regulation of intrusion, the Council considers that it represents a step forward in the consolidation of a series of rights that are included in the Constitution but that, 40 years later, are still to be developed in an organic law such as the one approved in the first round by the Council of Ministers.
The Council of Lawyers values very especially the content of the extensive article 15, referring to professional secrecy, where it is expressly agreed that communications framed in the relationship between the professional and his client may not be admitted as evidence, with the only exception to have the legal authorization provided for in the laws. It is also of enormous importance for the confidentiality of the relationship between the lawyer and his client that, within the framework of an office in a registry in a professional, all files unrelated to the investigation to which he is linked are protected. Likewise, the express mention of the freedom of expression of the legal profession in the exercise of its functions, as well as the respect due to the legal professional due to the relevance of its functions, offers an added value.
The bill also reinforces the deontological and disciplinary function of the Bar Associations and Councils, to which it grants the exclusive function of ex officio initiating proceedings against those who may have infringed the regulations established in the General Statute of Lawyers. and in the Code of Ethics of the Spanish Lawyers. The Autonomous Councils and the General Council acquire the capacity to instruct disciplinary proceedings when the cases go beyond the scope of the Colleges or the Autonomous Communities.
In the next few days, the Lawyers' Council will address a more detailed analysis of the bill and will contribute, within the period of public information, those proposals that have already been made in the process prior to drafting and that have not been included in the text prepared by the Government. The Advocacy considered that this approved this week is a good base that can be worked on in the coming weeks and, especially, during its parliamentary process to continue perfecting it.
This is the first milestone of the legislative channel to have a Law on the Right of Defense represents a firm step forward from the point of view of protecting citizens, since it consolidates in a single text with the rank of organic law all the guarantees linked to defense Legal The future regulation will allow closing the circle of constitutional guarantees of effective judicial protection and therefore supposes a fundamental advance of the rule of law.
