Language, History and the Lawyers’ Directives

The author highlights the historical context of the creation of the Services and the Establishment Directives and the different concepts of the legal profession(s) in the Member States. With the accession of the UK and Ireland to the then European Communities, the European legislator had no longer to deal with a more or less uniform understanding of the role and function of the legal profession. The different concepts are reflected in the different notions used, or formerly used, in the different European jurisdictions. These jurisdictions also differ in their understanding of the legal and judicial, or the legal and notarial, professions as separate or reconcilable careers.