European Law of Lawyering

The different statutory provisions of the European Community dealing with the legal profession can be summed up under the label of the European Law of Lawyering.

The four internal market freedoms, namely free movement of goods, services, people and capital are to be mentioned in the first place. Even though not lawyer-specific, the European Court of Justice has applied them to lawyers in several cases.   

The different European directives reglementing the provision of services in general and legal services in particular play also a major part in the European Law of Lawyering.   

Finally, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) follows a continual effort to unify the rules of professional conduct within the European Community. 

On the following pages you can find the texts of the relevant directives and their implementations, a list of important ECJ cases and a description of the attempts to unify the rules of professional conduct of the member states.