Body has no power to force law training reform

THE Competition Authority (CA) has no powers to force the Society of the King’s Inns to accept its radical recommendations for reform of barristers’ training and regulation, it confirmed yesterday.

The King’s Inns has rejected the authority’s recommendations that a legal services commission be set up to oversee legal education and the regulation of the profession.

It has also rejected the CA’s recommendation that the King’s Inns’s and Law Society’s monopoly of legal professional training be broken.

The King’s Inns has rejected the recommendations on the grounds it would be an interference by the executive with the independence of the legal profession that would be against the Constitution.

The King’s Inns also rejected the authority’s recommendation that it license other institutions to provide barrister-at-law degrees.

It said the authority produced no evidence to demonstrate that the King’s Inns’s monopoly of training had undesirable results, and stressed it was a non-profit-making institution.

The CA said it would be responding officially to the King’s Inns when it submits its final report to Government on the legal profession.

Asked if the authority has any legal powers to force the King’s Inns to accept its recommendations, its spokesman said: “We cannot force the King’s Inns or any other professional body to accept our recommendations.”

It is up to the Government to introduce laws and policies that would implement these recommendations, he added.

The CA has powers to prosecute any group it believes is abusing a dominant market position. The spokesman said this avenue was not being looked at