THE PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL LIABILITY (continuation)

The French law of obligations has been undergoing significant changes in the recent years. The French contract law reform came to the end in 2018. The next set of the changes relates to the civil liability issues. A translation of a book written by one of the key French authors in this field, which translation is proposed to divide into several parts and to so make it available for the Russian legal professional community, helps to better explore the material and to clearer understand the main principles which the French approach on the fundamental problems of the civil law liability is based on.

A Common Clerk as Courtholder: Geoffrey Spirleng in Late Medieval Norwich

Courtholders presided over a variety of late medieval English courts. Like most courtholders before 1500, Geoffrey Spirleng, common clerk of Norwich, did not attend an inn of court or chancery. Nevertheless, his experiences as a courtholder and as common clerk qualified him as a legal professional. Because of the frequency of lawsuits, people of all backgrounds were impacted by courtholders’ actions. This article argues that courtholders played a crucial role in ensuring judicial efficiency and consistency.

The role of legal intermediaries in the dispute pyramid: inequalities before the French legal system

This paper shows that social inequalities are cumulative and occur at each stage of the dispute pyramid, from the identification of a conflict through to satisfaction with its outcome. Based on a large and original survey on ordinary people's representations of and practices within the legal system in France (N = 2,660), our study finds that an individual's contact, or lack of contact, with a legal intermediary, who may be a legal professional or a non-legal professional, has a very significant impact on the decision to take a case to court. Contact with a legal intermediary also influences the individual's satisfaction with the outcome, but not in the same way for all plaintiffs: income is a more determining factor in satisfaction with the outcome in cases where the judge makes a decision than in cases where a solution is found outside the courtroom.

HUNG OUT TO DRY? ATTORNEY-CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY AND THE REPORTING DUTIES IMPOSED BY THE FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE CENTRE ACT 38 OF 2001

According to the South African Law Reform Commission, money laundering is the manipulation of illegally acquired wealth in order to obscure its true source or nature. This is achieved by performing a series of transactions with the proceeds of criminal activities that, if successful, will leave the illegally derived proceeds appearing as a product of legitimate transactions or investments. Professional money laundering assists and strengthens organised crime and may contribute to the undermining of the civil society and the financial system of a country. Attorneys as professionals are no doubt in a precarious position. On the one hand there is the duty to keep in confidence private information pertaining to clients’ affairs which is no doubt essential to the attorney-client relationship and on the other hand there is the duty to the community to uphold the ethics of the profession. Attorneys may find that they are caught between these seemingly conflicting duties and the question is which duty is more important. This article weighs the newly-imposed duties on the legal profession pertaining to money laundering against the equally important principle of attorney-client privilege and asks whether it is possible to reconcile anti-money laundering obligations with legal professional privilege. The article considers the latter duty in light of the ethics of the legal profession in South Africa and the foundation of legal professional conduct. In addition, the position in the United Kingdom and in Canada is also considered. Against this background it is argued that there is no need to regulate the South African professional legal industry any further. Until FICA’s reporting provisions are formally challenged in the Constitutional Court, attorneys will continue to remain uncertain as totheir position, notwithstanding the fact that guidance notes have been issued to aid attorneys in this regard. In order to comply with FICA and simultaneously preserve the attorney-client relationship, attorneys need to educate clients on the provisions of FICA. Furthermore, legal practitioners should have a sound legal knowledge of FICA in order help the State combat organised crime and laundering activities. Finally, it is advisable to keep up to date with the latest guidelines which regarding the independence of the profession; possible infringements of the fundamental right to privacy and potential threats to the confidential attorney-client relationship. It is the awareness of this precarious balance that will ensure compliance with the FICA without causing the attorneys’ profession to lose its credibility.

Cooperation of the Central Government, Local Government and Self-Government of Legal Professionals in Organising the System of Legal Aid in Poland

A deliberately organised system of legal aid financed by the State was introduced in Poland under the Act of 5.8.2015 and is based on the cooperation between local government units and legal professional self-government, under supervision by the bodies of public government which finance this task. The legislature uses for this purpose the solutions that are already known in administrative law, i.e. contract for the performance of a public task, grant for the performance thereof, an agreement between local government units and bodies of legal professional self-government organizations, agreements with third parties providing a public service.

20. Private Privilege

The term ‘private privilege’ relates to separate privileges that prevent evidence from being disclosed in litigation, or witnesses from being compelled to answer questions at trial. In a criminal case, privilege may be claimed in two situations: legal professional privilege and the privilege against self-incrimination. This chapter discusses legal professional privilege in criminal cases; legal professional privilege and the courts; waiving legal professional privilege; the privilege against self-incrimination; and the privilege against self-incrimination and the European Convention on Human Rights 1950.

219 Documentation of Scrotal Examination in Male Children with Abdominal Pain

Background Abdominal pain is a common presentation in all age groups with 7-10% of emergency department admissions. Method This registered audit looks at male children (aged <16), admitted with abdominal pain during this period. Approximately 2,877 children under the age of sixteen were admitted, 1,582 males. This equates to 55% of children admitted within 3 months. Manual note analysis from ED records identified 53 males <16 years of age with abdominal pain for inspection of documentation. Results 45% of inspected notes had documented genital and scrotal examination, none of which had a documented consent. In addition, 21% had a documented chaperone for the intimate examination. None of the cases had BOTH consent and presence of chaperone documented. Conclusions A common presentation in children lacks significant elements of documentation. This is noted in multiple specialties. Potentially overlooked aspects of examination can lead to missed or delayed identification of time sensitive diagnosis namely testicular torsion, with possible substantial legal, professional, and financial consequences. To improve the quality of documentation, education at junior doctor level has been carried out, with further analysis to take place and with the view to incorporate the three elements of an intimate examination: consent, chaperone, and findings.

9. Legal Professional Privilege

Chapter 9 focuses on the doctrine of legal professional privilege. Technically, this encompasses two separate privileges: legal advice privilege, which protects communications between client and legal adviser; and litigation privilege, which protects communications between client or legal adviser and a third party, so long as preparation for litigation is the dominant purpose of the communication. Legal advice privilege, unlike litigation privilege, is regarded as ‘absolute’ and incapable of being overridden. The chapter also briefly looks at ‘without prejudice privilege’, aspects of which the House of Lords and Supreme Court have considered in relatively recent years.