The Gazette 1987

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1987

process of exchange of ideas and communication of thought. John Maynard Keynes propounded that ideas were the most powerful in- fluence in human society. The im- pact of printing upon society was tremendous and may be properly termed the second literacy. The Third Literacy This is the mechanical assembly of words and figures inaugurated by computer technology. Without doubt this is the most revolutionary of the grades of literacy, boosted as it is by the speed of modern communications whether radionic or cable. Work patterns The establishment of information technology in all its forms has to be coupled with a dramatic change in work patterns in the world from the reliance upon manufacturing in- dustries (making things) for the employment of labour and the ear- ning of wages to a reliance upon what are popularly called the ser- vice industries (which may mean different things to different people). Transcendent influences Superimposed upon the powers of nation states and the privileges and disciplines, or freedoms and restric- tions, which those powers prescribed through their Cons- titutions for their subjects, have always been the intellectual in- fluences of human beings, no mat- ter by which nation state they might be governed. Hence religion crossed the frontiers defined by na- tional boundaries and interfered with the laws of nation states. Because of this influence and the extra territorial use to which it was put, individuals owed as much to the head of their religious sect as to the head of the nation state which was their home. This was the cause of savage war in all parts of the world. In Europe it was the conflict between Roman Catholics and Protestants. In other countries the conflict lay between Moham- medan, Hindu and Christian. Life and death were and are governed by the allegiance of an individual to religious belief and submission to the rules of that belief in the place of the rules of the nation state.

Religion transcended national boundaries and still does, causing grevious dissension in many parts of the world from Ireland through the Balkans into Russia, the Middle East, India and beyond. It is true to say that there is no part of the world where these conflicts bet- ween national loyalties and transcendent loyalties and the power that each brings has not caused and does not cause not on- ly comfort and joy but hardship and tragedy. In more recent times, from the middle of the last century, there has been the parallel influence of humanist doctrines of which Marx- ism is the most obvious example. These ideologies, whether divine or human, pay no regard to national boundaries and the laws that govern individual nations bounded by a line upon a map. The ideologies and the intellectual force behind them have culminated in the formulation of a new set of laws generically called Human Rights. Whatever may be said, these are bound to conflict with na- tional laws and 'interfere' with the internal laws of nation states. Role of the lawyer The above is a brief and inadequate thumbnail sketch, upon an enor- mous canvas. What has it to do with the role and function of the lawyer and his service to the con- sumer? The answer must surely be that the impact of the Third Literacy coupled with the change in the pattern of work has altered the function of the lawyer from where it has lain in the developed countries in the last two centuries. This development, along with the transcendence of ideas across na- tional boundaries, requires the re- assessment of the role and function of the lawyer. Without such reassessment it is difficult, if not impossible, to know how he can serve the consumer. Function of the lawyer The original function of the lawyer was that of an advocate. He had to represent the views of his client to the power that administered the law. He was necessary for two reasons. He was articulate and learned (that is to say that he could read and write) and he also knew

what the law was. Initially, his con- cern with the administration of pro- perty was limited. By way of example, in England, property was transferred by livery of seisin. This was simply the handing over of soil pn the boundaries of land before witnesses and was not committed to writing. The writing of wills and their proof (or probate) developed gradually but was administered by the Church and not by the State. The necessity to prove a will and involve a lawyer is only now com- ing about in some places in the world. Hence, by degrees, lawyers ex- tended their practice from re- presentation of their clients before a court and became more involved not only in the law of property of all kinds but in the use, develop- ment and administration of it. Pro- perty, in its scope, became very wide. Corporeal hereditaments are easy to recognise but the great development has been in those that are incorporeal. More and more the lawyer is concerned not just with land but with the use of land and rights in it; with copyright, patents, trade marks — intellectual property of all kinds; with shares in companies and the issue and transfer of them; with the holding of bonds and options for futures; with the property in a job whether secured by a service contract or by means of a statute; with a licence to do something whether to fly an aeroplane or fleet of aeroplanes or to extract minerals; with the pro- perty rights of a state to levy taxes and keep them; with the property of an individual in a live perfor- mance. The list is becoming endless. All of these forms of pro- perty have become more and more complex and led to the develop- ment of that person known as 'the business lawyer'. He is quite distinct from the advocate and his function is quite different from that of the advocate. The business lawyer and the businessman are complementary to each other. Furthermore, the function and knowledge of the business lawyer overlaps those of other professions — the accountant, the architect, the surveyor, the patent agent, the stock broker, the insurance broker, the commodity broker, the actuary, or the licensed dealer in investment business. Not only is the business lawyer involved in advising on the

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