The Professional Secret, Confidentiality and Legal Profession ...

de la meme maniere que l'avocat national, sous reserve de
ce que dans la pays ou il invoque le secret professionnel,
les modalites de l'exercice de sa profession ne soient pas
incompatibles avec celles admises dans ce pays.
7. No action to achieve this aim has been taken by any of the member
states since 1965. But it is also fair to say that no problems of
a serious nature appear to have arisen since 1965 in relation to the
rights of visiting lawyers. Since the enlargement of the Community,
involving new systems of law and procedure in the UK, Ireland and
Denmark, and with the growth of cross-frontier activity, the problem
is likely to become more acute. UK lawyers, for example, are
particularly worried by the fact that, except in Ireland, written advice
to a client is not 'privileged' in the other member states as it is in
the UK.l Further, in the context of the current proposed Directive
on the Provision of Services2 and any future Directive on Establishment,
it is necessary to ensure that in those states where the Codes do not
protect the lawyer from another state, equal protection is afforded to
him. It seems probable that this will be achieved by the formula
adopted in the current proposed Directive, which treats those persons
listed in Article 1(2) as beneficiaries of the Directive and, as such,
entitled to be treated as "lawyers" in the host member state. On the
other hand, problems will remain, for the time being at least, in
connection with those lawyers who have offices in other member states
and in connection with employed lawyers.3
(c) /
1. See, for example, the article "Does Legal
Professional Privilege Exist in the EEC?"
by Stephen Stewart and David Vaughan,
published in the Law Society's Gazette, 5
November 1975, pp. 1111-2. (It is only
fair to point out, however, that this
article treats the law of the professional
secret as being the sole protection of
communications between lawyer and client
in the other member states).
2. Com 75, 442 final, 25 July 1975.
3. cf. paras.C.19 and 32 above.
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