The Professional Secret, Confidentiality and Legal Profession ...

E. RESOLUTION OF THE COMMISSION CONSULTATIVE DES BARREAUX DE
50
LA COMMUNAUTE EUROPEENNE.
[The French text is the primary text but, as this Report is
published in English, the English translation is printed
first.]
THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BARS OF THE EUROPEAN
COMMUNITY MEETING AT DUBLIN ON 21ST NOVEMBER 1975
- FINDS AS FOLLOWS:-
1. The rights and obligations of the lawyer in relation to professional
confidentiality rest upon common principles but involve particular
methods of application in each state related to its own legal system.
They are, however, recognised in the law of every state as' being an
essential guarantee of the liberty of the individual and of the
proper administration of justice and as constituting one of the
basic attributes of the legal profession.
2. Elimination of all the differences which have been found to exist
cannot be achieved without alteration of the legal systems themselves.
3. Nevertheless it appears that those difficulties which arise most
frequently through the application in an international context of
the rules of professional confidentiality can be resolved if account
is taken of the underlying principles which justify those rules.
4. Lawyers should not suppose that they are entitled, under cover of
THEREFORE /
professional confidentiality, to transgress their legal obligations
or their moral duties, and they must not, in whatever capacity or
whatever circumstances, be the accomplices of their clients.