HIBAPRESS
The Justice, Legislation and Human Rights and Freedoms Committee of the House of Representatives approved, by a majority, on Thursday evening, the draft law No. 66.23 regarding the regulation of the legal profession.
The draft law, at the end of a meeting dedicated to deciding on the amendments and lasting about eight consecutive hours, was approved by 16 deputies, while 7 deputies opposed it.
Thus, the committee approved a number of amendments that concerned the conditions for entry into the profession and the requirements for its practice, after the Minister of Justice, Abdulatif Wahbi, positively interacted with a group of proposals submitted by the parliamentary groups and the parliamentary group.
In this context, the Minister agreed to an amendment submitted by the Al-Haraki team regarding Article 4, which provides for the reformulation of a provision related to the professional conduct of the lawyer, stipulating that "the lawyer adheres in his professional conduct to the principles of freedom, independence, honesty, impartiality, integrity, dignity, decency, honor and respect", after the original text was limited to the principles of "freedom, independence, impartiality, integrity, dignity, decency and honor."
The Minister also positively interacted with the most prominent amendments related to Article 5 concerning the conditions for applying for the legal profession, where it was agreed to raise the age of entry into the profession from 40 to 45 years, an amendment that was justified by the deputies, from the majority and the opposition, by the need to adapt the adopted age with the employment ceiling in force, and to enable legal competencies that have accumulated experience in other sectors to enter the profession.
Regarding the conditions of eligibility, the Minister partially approved an amendment submitted by the Socialist-Federal Opposition team, which provides for the addition of the condition "that the candidate has not been convicted of a crime of financial crimes or forgery, even if his honor has been restored." An amendment was also approved for the Progress and Socialism team stipulating the inclusion of "honesty" among the values to be observed in the condition of good conduct, stipulating that the condition should not be that the candidate is convicted of "actions contrary to honor, decency, honesty, or good conduct, even if his honor has been restored."
Regarding Article 6 regarding the conditions for entry into the profession, the committee approved an amendment that provides for raising the deadline for submitting a request for registration in the list of trainee lawyers from three months to six months, starting from the date of delivery of the certificate of competence.
This amendment was submitted by the majority deputies, the Al-Haraki team, and the Justice and Development group, as they stressed the need to "take into account the material and administrative conditions of the new candidates and to enshrine the philosophy of facilitation in the laws regulating the liberal professions."
Article 13 also raised a discussion about the conditions for exempting higher education professors from the certificate of competence and from training, where it was unanimously agreed to maintain the benefit of higher education professors specializing in law from this exemption, while removing the condition "that their age does not exceed 55 years when submitting the application."
Under the amended formula, professors of higher education specializing in law, who have practiced the teaching profession for eight years in one of the colleges or institutes of higher education in Morocco, after accepting their resignation or referring them to retirement, unless that was for a disciplinary reason, are exempted from the certificate of competence and from training, with spending one year in a lawyer's office appointed by the Dean.
With regard to Article 39, the committee approved reducing the required seniority period to plead before the Court of Cassation from 12 years to 10 years, taking into account the acquired rights, after the Socialist-Federal Opposition team submitted a proposal to determine it in eight years, while the Progress and Socialism team proposed adopting ten years.
As for Article 77 related to the control of sessions, it also sparked a discussion between the deputies and the Minister of Justice, after the draft stipulated that the court shall prepare an independent record of everything that may happen of "insult or insult or disruption of the normal conduct of the session."
The deputies, majority and opposition, insisted on deleting the phrase "disruption of the normal conduct of the session," which they considered "vague and subject to several interpretations," stressing that "the legal rule must be characterized by clarity and accuracy," but the Minister of Justice refused to delete the provision, and proposed replacing the term "disruption" with the term "obstruction."
In a statement to the Moroccan News Agency, the Chairman of the Justice, Legislation and Human Rights and Freedoms Committee, Said Baaziz, affirmed the importance of this legal text for the organization of the legal profession, whether at the level of the conditions for entry into the profession and its practice, or with regard to the structures framing it and the method of its election, as well as the aspects related to discipline, interruption, suspension, appeals, and notifications.
Mr. Baaziz pointed out that the majority and opposition groups and the group submitted a total of 493 amendments, noting positively that "the government has responded to about 50 amendments, which are amendments, in part, substantial."
