Attorneyship is a freelance profession defined by constitutionally guaranteed autonomy and independence. The fundamental task of an attorney which, besides the requirement to meet the professional conditions also requires respecting ethical principles, is to provide legal assistance to parties in front of courts and other state bodies in order to protect their rights, benefits, interests and other constitutionally guaranteed rights while ensuring the proper functioning of the judiciary sistem and the quality of the rule of law.
The subject of this Master's thesis is the presentation of an attorney's work through the prism of constitutional regime in Slovenian law and the protection of autonomy and independence with the special attention paid to Article 137 of the Constitution whose meaning is filled with the decisions of the Constitutional Court, which has repeatedly explained what the notion of autonomy and independence, which do not have the same constitutional significance, actually mean in practice and where their boundaries are. The State has the obligation to concretize the constitutional foundations of attorneyship without disproportionately interfering with the freedom and independence of attorneyship. Particular attention shall be paid to the relationship between autonomy and independence represented by the attorney in the interests of the parties and (dis)proportionate restrictions imposed by the State in the context of public-interest protection.
In the Master's thesis I will use theory and constitutional jurisprudence to identify the constitutional situation of attorneyship in Slovenia. The main issue will be whether it is true that the necessary restrictions, together with certain national and relevant chamber rules undermine the constitutional standing of attorneyship, reduce access to effective protection of rights, especially for the socially weaker individuals, and excessively interfere with the free entrepreneurial initiative of lawyers.
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