The Crucial Role of Lawyers in Upholding Democracy and Freedom - G-Group

The lawyer & the client

It is an honour to wear this gown! An honour derived from the trust society has bestowed upon us. Could you imagine negotiating the complexity of the judicial world without the help of lawyers? Could we bear an all-powerful, totalitarian state, an exclusive interpreter of the common good, without individuals such as  you and me being able to defend ourselves? To exist? The juggernaut of society is only justifiable if there are checks and balances. 

In a criminal trial it is the nation, the people against one person. Parliament cannot be wrong. There is no known case of a democracy surviving when lawyers are disposed of. They are the anchor points for the structure we call liberty. 

If the existence of the state must be regarded as a regrettable necessity, it is only fair that the ordinary individual should be burdened as little as possible by it. 

In every criminal trial it is the public prosecutor who pursues the prosecution. He is counsel (or lawyer ) for the people. This is why in Belgian courts he is called the Attorney-General. If he (or she) is not a general, then he is a lone attorney. 

He is there for one man, for one reason, for one defence, for a confession as often as not; for a mystery, for the impossible, or even to play devil's advocate. The lawyer isn't just anybody. He wears the same robes as the prosecutor, the same robes as the presiding judge. The costumes are identical. The rank is the same, despite the formalities of the respect we show to the judges. 

Usually they return our respect. A question of quality. It is also so that the lawyer is the only person who, in terms of the law, in its implementation, has the right to stand next to a person and to say to the Prosecutor, "No, Mr Public Prosecutor. No, Mr Attorney- General.”  And the higher and the lower courts  review each other's arguments. This is because the Public Prosecutor or the Attorney-General are, “simply”, with all the respect due to them, are the representatives of the person designated by the constitution to embody the state, namely the Head of State. 

It is often forgotten that the lawyer is thus the person who, dressed in the same attire as the "prosecutor", has the right to say “no” to the head of state. As such the lawyer is the only true linchpin of democracy. In our legal system he embodies the defence of the individual. His everyday struggle is the daily defence of freedom.

Xavier Magnée
Master European Law
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