The Transversality of Human Rights in the Practice of the Legal Profession

At the 63rd UIA Congress, to be held on November 6-10, 2019 in Luxembourg, the Future of the Lawyer Commission will hold its session on Friday, November 8 (from 14.00 H to 15.30 H). It will address the issue of "The Transversality of Human Rights in the Practice of the Legal Profession".  This topic has been carefully chosen in light of the main themes selected for this edition of the Congress, in particular, "Doing Business in Respect of Human Rights", in an effort to deepen our understanding on this subject, within the scope of the Commission’s ambit of work and interest.

The reason for this reflection is the following:

Both the continental and common law legal systems are undergoing fundamental transformations that compromise their sensibility, which is a key element of their substantive legitimacy.

The disproportionate proliferation of norms in continental systems compromises the systemic coherence of the "legal order" as a structural framework of logical rules, underpinned by stable and general categories. On the other hand, the common law legal system has evolved towards codification, a process that alters the meaning of constitutional conventions, as ad hoc solutions, as well as the role of the courts.

Human rights, on the contrary, are increasingly being seen as a normative system founded on interpretation and an overarching hermeneutical criterion. The legal tests for equality, non-discrimination, minimum content, limits, or conflict, constitute daily interpretive parameters for jurists. Each and every defense is articulated by weighing the rights of "action" and the rights of "resistance" in a concrete legal situation. The sensibility of a specific legal position is increasingly constructed via the hermeneutics of subjective human rights and draws less from the rationality of the system.

We hope that the topic selected by the Commission on the Future of the Lawyer will be of interest, and that we can count on your participation during the session and subsequent discussion.

We look forward to seeing you in Luxembourg in November!