Subordinate Legislation Committee,
Meeting date: Tuesday, May 16, 2000
Official Report
111KB pdf
European Communities (Lawyer's Practice) (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (SSI 2000/121)
The second item on the agenda is SSI 2000/121, on which we raised various matters that had been flagged up by the Law Society of Scotland. We have had a fairly full response from the Executive on that matter.
I note that my pager has not gone off, so the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates either has not been contacted or has nothing to say. The advice that we have had is that the Law Society had a valid point, which has been answered to some extent by the Executive. However, there is still a difficulty surrounding the clarity of the regulations.
We might draw the attention of the lead committee to the fact that the Law Society has raised that problem and an explanation has been given, although it takes a focused reading of the Executive's response to understand that explanation. Some consideration might be given to redrafting the order or simplifying the terminology so that we do not have to rely on the expert opinion of the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates.
Some people might find it surprising that lawyers object to the law being too complex.
Only when it is about them.