Incompatibility of Functions and Mandates in Governing Bodies of Legal Professional Self-Government Organisations

Abstract

The article discusses the organisational issues of self-government organisations of the professions of public trust in Poland, in the context of the implementation of the principle of incompatibilitas, as a sine qua non condition for their proper functioning and due performance of the public tasks entrusted to them. The analysis covers the self-government organisations of advocates, attorneys-at-law, notaries, bailiffs, patent attorneys and tax advisers, taking into account their different structures and the legal basis (statutory law or bye-laws) for the prohibition on the one-handed holding of multiple functions or mandates in the bodies of these professional associations. The study found that the phenomenon of holding multiple functions in the self-government of attorneys-at-law constitutes a problem. The study outlines the cause of this situation and draws conclusions for the law as it should stand, which concern the introduction of a prohibition of accumulating functions to the optimum extent, in line with the solutions applied by the self-government of advocates. The aim of the article is not only to substantiate the necessity of these changes, but also to show how they should be made. This proposal can be implemented by amending the internal rules governing the self-government of attorneys-of-law, which should be treated as intra-corporate normative acts and only ultimately through legislative intervention.