Law Society: Support for lawyers targeted by US
The Law Society is among 18 national and international legal organisations to call on the US government to stop its campaign against lawyers.
This “violate international human rights law and undermine the rule of law”, according to the statement organised by the Commonwealth Lawyers Association.
Both the Law Society and Bar Council of Northern Ireland have signed it, as has the Faculty of Advocates, the Scottish Bar.
The joint statement covers the executive order signed by President Trump last month imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court personnel and their immediate family members, and the moves against individual US law firms that we have been reporting on.
It also cites the memo issued by the acting deputy attorney general instructing federal prosecutors to drop their corruption case against New York City mayor Eric Adams, which has led to six prosecutors resigning to date.
In her resignation letter, Danielle Sassoon, then interim US attorney for the southern district of New York, said there was no legal justification for dismissing the case.
The American Bar Association – the largest voluntary professional association in the world – “has also come under attack”, the statement noted.
The Federal Trade Commission issued a memo last month “denouncing” the association, using “hostile rhetoric and accusations of political bias”.
This was “further evidence of a concerted effort to undermine the independence of the legal profession and those that stand to protect it”.
All of these actions, the statement said, “demonstrate a contempt for the independence of the legal profession and violate long-standing international standards to ensure legal professionals can conduct their vital work without interference.
“Lawyers must be able to represent their clients without fear of retaliation and must not be punished because of who their clients are. The independence of the legal profession is fundamental to ensure respect for human rights and is a crucial element of the rule of law.”
The groups urged the US government to rescind the ICC executive order and “immediately halt all acts of intimidation, hindrance or harassment of legal professionals and any improper interference with their work”.
Finally, it should “ensure respect for the fundamental principles enshrined in the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers that protect legal professionals and ensure they can perform their professional duties without undue interference”.
The other national signatories are the German Federal Bar, German Bar Association, Law Council of Australia, Paris Bar, Union of the Italian Criminal Chambers, and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada.
International signatories are the European Criminal Bar Association, Fédération des Barreaux des d’Europe, Union Internationale des Avocats’ Institute for the Rule of Law of, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger, and Lawyers for Lawyers, a non-political foundation based in the Netherlands.
We have asked the Bar Council why it did not sign the statement, although it did sign an earlier International Bar Association statement condemning the ICC sanctions.
