Bar Council to formulate new ethical guidelines for lawyers by end-2011

The Bar Council of India will, by this year-end notify new ethical guidelines for lawyers based on international principles which would be applicable to the profession in India, solicitor-general and chairman, Bar Council of India, Gopal Subramanium said in Hyderabad yesterday.

Talking to journalists on the sidelines of 17th Commonwealth Law Conference in Hyderabad, Subramanium said the draft had already been published and would be circulated among various stakeholders. He added new guidelines were simple, and on the lines of the principles laid down in South African legislation.

The BCI decided to update and make the guidelines more realistic as they had not been revisited after they were framed in 1962-63.

Commonwealth secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma, said in his speech on 'Meeting the challenges of emerging economies in keeping the rule of law,' that the rule of law was central to Commonwealth values. He added that respect for and implementation of the rule of law had been long enshrined as a core value of the Commonwealth, and most recently in the Affirmation of Commonwealth Values and Principles, as agreed by heads of government during the last summit in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009.

He added that the rule of law was not only prescriptive, but  was a way of underwriting and promoting aspiration, the strength and democratic coherence of societies their shared task of economic and social development. Sharma added that from the Commonwealth perspective, democracy and development were mutually reinforcing.

According to eminent Bangladeshi jurist Kamal Hossain, the rule of law was indispensable for the achievement of sustainable human development.