Principles & Guidelines on Continued Legal Education Programmes (CLE)

The UIA adopted Principles & Guidelines on Continued Legal Education Programmes (CLE), approved by tits Governing Board in Macau on October 31, 2013.

The principles and Guidelines allow the UIA to offer to the legal community worldwide an opportunity for improvement in the area of continued legal education (“CLE”) which is critical for the sake of guaranteeing the competence and independence of lawyers, the quality of the professional services offered, and which contributes to reinforcing the Rule of law and democracy, to securing a more effective Access to justice and to safeguarding the rights of all individuals.

The Declaration of Principles reminds us that all lawyers have an ethical duty to take part in continued legal education events and activities and also the right to be offered high-quality CLE programmes. We recommend that all national, regional and local Law Societies and Bar Councils that have not yet adopted a CLE programme should seriously consider adopting and implementing such programmes for lawyers - whether as mandatory or minimum or merely recommended or voluntary, depending on local consideration and conditions regarding access to the legal profession and continued legal education conditions.

We also recommend that CLE should be a lifelong learning duty of all lawyers.

Given its international approach, the UIA encourages offering to lawyers the opportunity to attend CLE Programs in other countries, that credits achieved abroad should be taken into account for satisfying the national CLE requirements, as well as the mutual recognition of CLE events and programs between different countries on a bilateral and multilateral level.

Our long term objective is the adoption of Uniform and Harmonised CLE Rules and Standards as a critical means for encouraging and securing the mutual recognition of CLE events and programmes between different countries.