A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Sunday, June 25, 2017
What Is A Bar Association For?
Last
week, two troubling events took place for the Sri Lankan legal
profession: First, the Minister of Justice threatened a lawyer who made a
comment in a television discussion regarding some attacks on churches.
The Minister said he will take steps to remove the lawyer from practice.
Subsequently, the lawyer was mentioned by name by one of the members of
the Asgiriya Karaka Sabahawa in a televised interview. These incidents
raise questions about the role of the Bar Association.
Professional
associations are there primarily to protect the interests of its
members. Such interests include the defence of professional integrity
and the protection of the capacity to practice one’s profession without
fear or favour.
Professional
associations are not meant to be driven by ideological considerations
or by political affiliations. A professional association must decide its
actions on the basis of well-entrenched principles. Each profession has
its own requirements so that members of each profession can do their
work only on the basis of those professional norms and standards.
Therefore,
on this particular occasion, the only consideration should be the
defence of a particular lawyer who has been unjustly attacked. Like in
other professions, members of the legal profession also, in their own
personal and private capacities, may belong to whatever political groups
they wish to belong to. They can also have their own personal
idiosyncrasies.
An
essential aspect of professional conduct is to be able to separate
those matters that are of a personal nature and those matters that are
relevant to the practice of the profession.
Therefore,
in this particular instance, it should be considered a matter of honour
that every elected member of the Bar Association will act in unison to
defend what is fundamental to their profession.
In
the past, we have seen lawyers being murdered for no other reason
except the practice of their profession on behalf of their clients.
After these things happen, the Bar Association usually makes statements
of condolences and subsequently keeps on referring to those victims of
violence.
However, what is needed is to act before foreseeable wrongs are done, thereby preventing the consequences of such actions.
A
member of the Bar Association should be able to have an expectation
that the professional association that he belongs to will stand by him
when he faces dangers and threats, and that he will not be betrayed by
the Association and its leaders.