After looking at the issue of access to justice, the focus turns to those responsible for securing justice on behalf of their clients.
I’ve covered present legal training and legal education in more detail in Part II. The most important question here is to what extend legal education would need to change to accommodate Welsh independence?
This is mainly with undergraduate law (LLB), criminology or sandwich courses in mind, but could apply to some postgraduate courses too.
The fundamental principles of legal education would probably remain unchanged. Changes would only need to be made to accommodate any significant legal differences between Welsh law and English law as well as different constitutional arrangements.
Two obvious examples would be planning and environmental laws, which have changed a fair bit since devolution and are likely to change again post-Brexit. I’d imagine one of the first things an independent Wales would do would be to change employment laws to be more trade union friendly and promote “fair work” – a significant divergence from England.
There are plenty of legal education topics which could remain the same. Reforms elsewhere – like insolvency, family law, media law etc. – are likely to be slower or a lower priority. Criminal law probably wouldn’t drastically change either – though how we deal with criminals may change.
Broadly speaking the legal system would likely remain similar but there could be differences in specific laws and perhaps – if we decide to do so – changes to some court procedures. It would take generations before the differences become so great that legal courses would have to be completely overhauled – so it would probably be a gradual process.
The professional exams for prospective solicitors and barristers are usually a test of applied knowledge and skills than specific knowledge.
While some Wales-specific questions could be included as well as wider availability of testing in the Welsh language, the broad syllabus and principles needn’t change that much – which could be positive for cross-border working and learning (in both a good way and a bad way).
A Welsh Bar
The “Bar” is a term used to describe the body of practising lawyers – often limited to barristers in England and Wales, but it can be used to describe the legal profession more generally.
Being “called to the Bar” – in England and Wales at least – means passing the qualifications needed to practice as a barrister. In other common law jurisdictions, “admission to the Bar” may mean simply qualifying to practice law as a solicitor, barrister or equivalent.
As for Wales and independence, we could:
Maintain the distinction between solicitors and barristers – The status quo in which solicitors and barristers are separate professions with separate professional bodies and training programmes. The Welsh Bar would be restricted to barristers (possibly as a Welsh Inn of Court) with separate organisations for solicitors and other legal professionals.
Adopt a Scottish-style “advocate” system – The difference between an advocate and a barrister is largely in name only. Instead of an Inn of Court, we could have a Faculty of Advocates (as in Scotland), a unified Law Society (as in the Isle of Man) for solicitors and advocates, or leave the Law Society solely for solicitors.
Move to an American Model: Attorneys-at-law (single/unified Bar Association for all practising lawyers) – The United States is unique amongst common law jurisdictions by having a limited separation between solicitors and barristers, meaning anyone qualified to do so can represent clients in court. There are still some attorneys that specialise in court-based work (litigators) or advisory work (a corporate lawyer), but practising lawyers in all roles are usually members of a single state bar association (because the US is a federation and each state has a separate legal system).
Patents of precedence
This one is largely ceremonial, but the legal profession is fond of its traditions, so…
If Wales retains the monarchy, then the most senior and experienced barristers would continue to – on merit and by patents of precedence – call themselves Queen’s Counsel (QC) or King’s Counsel (KC) depending on who’s monarch at the time.
If an independent Wales becomes a republic or something else, then we could follow the Irish and Commonwealth republic example and use Senior Counsel (SC) instead.
There’s also the Welsh language option of using an honorific like “Pen Gyfreithiwr”/PG (“Head Lawyer/Master of the Law”) – if that’s even grammatically correct, I don’t know.
