The Professional Secret, Confidentiality and Legal Profession ...

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from disclosure. The purpose of this protection is, again,
the same in all the member states - namely, to ensure that
lawyers, as part of their professional duty, can achieve the
settlement of disputes without resort to litigation. (Interest
reipublicae componere lites). In the majority of member
states, the protection of correspondence between lawyers is
achieved by rules of professional conduct and not by rules
of law. But in two member states (the UK and Ireland) the
protection is achieved by the same rules of law which protect
communications between the client and the lawyer.
The main purpose of this Report is to describe the methods by
which the general principles mentioned above are applied in
the member states of the Community, and to consider some of
the problems raised by the differences in application. The
Report was presented, in draft form, to the Commission
Consultative des Barreaux at a meeting in Dublin in November
1975, and has been revised in the light of discussion at that
meeting and of comments made subsequently by delegates and
others. In the light of this discussion and comment it has
become clear that the law governing the rights, duties and privileges
of lawyers cannot be fully studied in isolation. This aspect of
the law is, in most member states, only a part of a more general
legal and constitutional framework by which the state guarantees
to its citizens such fundamental rights as the right to a fair trial,
the inviolability of the home, of letters and of telecommunications,
and the right to individual privacy. This Report does not attempt
to study every aspect of this vast subject, but it may help to show
that any threat to the confidential relationship between lawyer and
client is, truly, a threat to the liberty of the individual in
a free society governed by the rule of law.