MPs want to allow combining legal practice with military service

20 February 11:17

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has registered draft law No. 11014, which proposes to lift the ban on combining the practice of law with military service. The draft law was initiated by MPs Oleksandr Tkachenko and Antonina Slavytska, reports

Currently, Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and Practice of Law” establishes requirements for the incompatibility of such activities with other occupations, one of which is military service. At the same time, military service in case of mobilisation is a citizen’s duty.

“The provisions of Article 59 of the Constitution of Ukraine provide everyone with the right to professional legal aid. The provision of legal aid on a professional basis… is entrusted to lawyers and the Bar of Ukraine. This can only be realised if legal aid is provided by a lawyer,”

– reads the explanatory note to the document.

Thus, according to the authors of the draft law, a kind of legal conflict is created when a lawyer is forced to fulfil his civic duty and serve in the army, but this violates the rights of those people whom he represented and defended at the time of mobilisation.

Currently, the issue is temporarily settled by the decision of the Bar Council of 3 March 2022, which does not consider military service during martial law to be a part-time job. However, MPs propose to regulate it systematically. Only contract service should be considered a part-time job, they believe.

“It is proposed to clarify in Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and Practice of Law” the grounds for incompatibility of practising law, namely to establish that military service under contract or alternative (non-military) service is incompatible with the practice of law.
Thus, the lawyers who are called up to the Armed Forces of Ukraine under mobilisation will retain their current status and will be able to continue to provide legal aid,”

– reads the explanatory note.

Остафійчук Ярослав
Editor