News From France - Merger Of Professions

Cezanne, L'Avocat (l'oncle Dominique), 1866

According to Mr Breese it seems unlikely that the process is interrupted despite some opposition expressed e.g. by Bâtonnier Mr Jean Castelain who had not failed to recall the reservations of Parisian lawyers in the Bulletin of the Paris Bar. The willingness of government to create a large legal profession by re-grouping small professions and whip of the Members of Parliament without doubt will lead to the adoption of the text before the end of the year and the disappearance of the profession of french patent attorneys in September 2010, Breese reckons.

These political proceedings are hardly imaginable to happen in a corresponding manner in Germany. They give the impression that France still has a more authoritarian and centralised political culture than Germany, be it for good or worse. If the Government makes big plans to re-organise the regulated professions, they appear to have stamina and public acceptance to push this trough. In Germany, any such attempt most probably would be watered down to eventually die in the Second Chamber of the Parliament, the Bundesrat.

With regard to this particular project, the merger of the professions of the attorneys-at-law and of the patent attorneys, I am still observing the French scenery full of wondrousness but without being able to bring myself to express any definitive opinion thereon as to whether this might be seen as a strike of genius or as the begin of some sort of desaster.

(Photo: (C) 2009 by *clairity* via Flickr, licenced under a CC licence)