Recent Trends in French Local administration
| Author | V. D. Lipman |
| Date | 01 March 1947 |
| Published date | 01 March 1947 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1947.tb01965.x |
PUBLIC
A.DMINISTRATION
v
Although the Committee do not exist, and have no power, to
try
civil claims
against solicitors brought before them by clients damnified by their misconduct,
they are
not
therefore
to
be regarded
as
having
no
concern with the public
interest. The very opposite is the
truth,
for the protection of the public is clearly
recognised as
a
primary factor connolling the exercise of the Committee’s discre-
tion,
both
as
to
the nature
of
their order and
also,
sometimes, in considering
whether
some
particular kind of conduct lies
within
their jurisdiction. The Com-
mittee,
in
fact,
may
be
said to exist ultimately for the protection
of
the public
and
for no other
purpose;
for
that
high
standard of professional integrity which
it
is
conoerned
to maintain has
in
the last analysis
no
other
object.
Incidentally,
however, the preservation
of
such
a
standard is equally in the interest of the
solicitor’s profession itself; while
on
the other hand the
committee,
from the
expert
practical
knowledge of their
members,
are able to protect solicitors from
being embarrassed by
any
over-exacthg
conception
of
what is proper
in
the
detailed performance
of
their
duties. It has
already
been
mentioned that
this
was
one reason for the trader from
the
Master to the Committee
of
the duty of
reporting
on
the facts
in
cases
of complaint,
and
it remains an important aspect
of
the Committee’s function, although
no
doubt
a
minor one.
The
Committee,
therefore, subject to the over-riding consideration
of
public
interest, hold the
balance
between
the
profession
and
the general public, and
this
is
faithfully
reflected
in
its procedure, which provides
a
fair hearing for both
applicant and respondent, where
the
rules
of
evidence tested for many years
!!h
the
Courts
are observed and the proceedings generally follow
lines
as closely
analogous as possible to those upon afiich the
High
Court
has found it expedient
to conduct its business. The exercise
of
judiaal
function
by
a special tribunal
of
any kind is rightly the
object
of
some
suspicion,
and
the subject was never
more
topical than at present, when. quasi-judicial
bodies
created for special
purposes
are already
a
cormnonplace, and bid fair
in
future
to
outnumber the
leaves
in
Vallombrosa. The importmce of the Disciplinary Committee’s
dis-
sociation from The Law Society, which
so
often figures as a litigant before them,
has been stressed above, and
it
is well indeed that
all
special tribunals should be
similarly free from constraint inherent in the nature
of
their constitution and
equally well placed for bringing
a
developed judicial
sense
to
the consideration
of
matters presented before
them
by whatever
Wed
advocacy the parties choose
to
enlist.
Recent Trends, in French
Local
Administ
ration
By
V.
D.
LIPMAN
CC
THE
existence
of
a Republic
in
a
country
w
centralised as France has
always
seed
to me to
be
something absolutely chimerical and
un-
realisable,” once
wrote
Lord
John
Russell,
and
foreign observers have often
been
struck by the
paradoxical
combinaticln in France
of
an
advanced democracy
at
28
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