Conference & Seminars
Conference Abstract: International Conference
Hebron University College of Law and Political Science (in partnership with Al-Najah National University, Birzeit University, Al-Quds University and the Palestinian Bar Association and a number of Netherlands universities), will organize an international conference on the legal profession in Palestine and the prospects for its reform, taking into consideration experiences from other countries of the world. The conference will take place on 23 and 24 November 2016 at Hebron University campus, West Bank, Palestine. The conference organizers call upon law professors, researchers and jurists from any country in the world to submit paper abstracts (about 300 words) to be presented at the conference.
Context
Notwithstanding all challenges that faced Palestine over the past century, Palestinian lawyers managed to build a well-established bar association comparable to those bars existing in independent states. The Palestinian Bar Association is an elected institution that manages the law profession, defends lawyers' interests, and oversees legal ethics.
The genesis of the current Palestinian Bar Association is attributed to the first meeting of Palestinian Arab lawyers in Ramallah for the purpose of creating an Arab Palestinian Bar in 1945. Fragmented after the geographical partition of Palestine in 1948-1949 war, lawyers have always been contemplating establishing representative bodies. Under Israeli occupation after 1967, Palestinian lawyers managed to set up three representative bodies: one for Gaza lawyers, one for practicing West Bank lawyers, and a third represented West Bank striking lawyers affiliated with the Jordanian Bar Association. Palestinians had to wait for half a century to re-initiate the discussion on the formation of one Palestinian Bar in 1994. The dream started to be realized with the adoption of presidential decree that unified the three factions under a transitional bar council that lasted until 2003, when the first election of the Palestinian Bar was conducted. This Bar achieved significant results, including setting up the legal basis for law profession (the current 1999 Advocates Law), building relations with judicial institutions nationally and globally, adopting social security scheme for lawyers, and instituting traditions for legal ethics and professional responsibility.
Yet there are still challenges ahead that face the Palestinian Bar Association. The involvement of female lawyers in leadership positions is still in its infancy phase notwithstanding the increasing number of females in the profession. The apprenticeship system for young lawyers should be reformed with a view to provide meaningful training and to maintain quality control for those who enter the profession. Legal ethics should be regularized based on the existing traditions in Palestine, on one hand, and by drawing from experiences of other stable countries, on the other. Criteria for lawyers' fees need to be introduced based on a carefully designed analysis. The Bar Association should adopt and lead a comprehensive system for legal aid, probably in collaboration with university law clinics. Yet politicization of the law profession remains the main challenge with the division between the West Bank and Gaza by the Israeli military occupation as well as by the current Palestinian split.
A detailed paper on the law profession in Palestine is attached.
