LAWASIA CONFERENCE in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
From the .9th to the 12th November 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen!

First of all, I would like to thank LawAsia and the organizers for allowing me and my colleagues from the Bar Association of Kingdom of Cambodia to participate in this important event.

May I take this opportunity to present you the overview of the Cambodian Bar Association structure and the challenges that the Bar has faced in practicing legal profession in Cambodia.

The legal profession in Cambodia is an independent and autonomous profession dedicated to serving justice. Legal practice in Cambodia is allowed only for those who are accredited by the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The Bar Association was established in 1995 and is regulated by the 1995 Law on the Bar and the Internal Rules and Code of Ethics of the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

The Bar Association is not subordinated to any political party, religious or other organizations. The Bar Association is financed by membership dues. It may not conduct any activity for profits.

So far 705 members have been admitted to the Bar to practice law in Cambodia. Among these members, there are 583 men and 121 women.

The governing bodies of the Bar Association are the General Assembly, the President, the Bar Council, and the Secretary General and departments.

1. General Assembly

The General Assembly is the highest governing body of the Bar Association. The organization and functioning of the General Assembly is specified in the Internal Rules of the Bar Association. The General Assembly brings together all lawyers registered in the Bar List. Only those lawyers so registered have the right to participate in deliberations of the General Assembly. The role of the General Assembly is both informative and consultative. It can put forward motions and petitions, which the Bar Council is required to resolve within 3 months. Sessions of the General Assembly are presided over by the President of the Bar Association. When a vote takes place, it is done by a show of hands. A secret ballot may be ordered by the President or upon the request of at least one quarter of those present.

The ordinary session of the General Assembly of the Bar Association is held once a year in conformity with an agenda determined by the Bar Council. Any registered lawyer may initiate a motion for entry onto the agenda by written request addressed to the Bar Council Extra-ordinary sessions may be held upon the request, attached to an agenda, by 30% of registered lawyers at least 15 days before the date that meeting takes place.

2.The President of the Bar Association

2.The President of the Bar Association is elected by the General Assembly of the Bar Association for a term of two years. The President can only be re-elected for the second term The President may delegate any or all of his/her powers to one or several members of the Bar Council for a specified period of time. In his absence, an oldest Council member is an acting President.

An election for President of the Bar Association is organized by the General Assembly of the Bar Association once every two years. Such election is conducted by secret ballot and is uninominal (one ballot per member). Voting may be conducted twice. The first round of voting is based on the absolute majority of all members of the Bar Association and the second vote shall be based on a simple majority of those members who are present. In the event of equal votes in the election, the oldest candidate shall then be elected.

If the President of the Bar Association dies or ceases his or her function during the course of his or her mandate, a vote shall be organized in order to select a substitute to complete the remaining period of such mandate

3.The Bar Council

The Bar Council is the governing body of the Bar Association. The Bar Council session is chaired by the President. Membership of the Bar Council ranges from 5 to 33 members depending on the number of registered lawyers. Members of the Bar Council shall be elected for a term of 3 years. In contrast with the Presidency, a Council member may serve several terms, but not consecutively. The Bar Council examine and resolve problems concerning the conduct of the legal profession. The Bar Council functions include:

• Establish Internal Rules and a Code of Ethics
• Decide on training programs and admit lawyers-applicants and lawyers-trainees into the Bar List
• Decide on requests submitted by lawyers
• Assure the good functioning of overall organization and management of the Bar Association
• Assure observance of discipline and the imposition of disciplinary sanctions
• Administer/manage the property and budget of the Bar and to specify the amount of dues to be paid by each individual lawyer and payments into the common insurance premium for the legal profession
• Administer the funds of the Bar
• Express opinions on various problems related to the field of justice and the rights of lawyers in the field of defence, primarily when there is an invitation from a public authority

The Bar Council may not hold meetings unless attended by more than one half of its members. The Bar Council shall make its decisions by a majority vote. In any vote of the Bar Council, the vote of the President of the Bar Association shall not carry any special weight. Decisions of the Bar Council which have the character of rules shall be communicated to the General Prosecutor of the Appeals Court.

4. Secretary General

The Secretary General is appointed by the Bar Council through a request of the Bar President without specific term to assist the Bar president in running the Bar Association. One or two deputy Secretary Generals may be appointed to assist the Secretary General work based on the need of the Bar Association.

5. Departments

Under the supervision of the Secretary General, the Bar has five main departments and three commissions:

(a) Legal Aid Department

Legal Aid Department is led by a director and one or two deputy directors to manage legal aid service to the poor or vulnerable group of people in the country as whole. This department staffs with 9 lawyers and one project assistant to fulfil the need of people. As our staffs are limited, we could not provide legal service as needed. Some clients seek legal service at the Legal NGOs. However, the Bar tries its best to represent clients as many as possible. In total, we represent at least 500 clients each year. Fund for legal aid comes from lawyers’ dues.

(b) Publication and Legal Awareness

This department was just established this year after I was elected to be the Bar President in October 16, 2008.. The main duties of this department are to provide legal awareness for the public though radio talk show, TV talk shows and legal awareness training and publication. The publication covers the Bar activities, legal news articles. The publication is issued every three months.

(c) Inspection Department

This department conduct investigations into the alleged misconduct and malpratice of lawyers. It reports to the Bar Council for disciplinary measures. In addition, it plays an important role to help the Bar Council to examine the qualifications of applicants to practice law in Cambodia.

(d) Administration and Finance

This department is the central office of the Bar Association that manages all administrative and financial works of the Bar.

(e) Lawyer Training Center

The Bar Association has established the Law Training Center (LTC) for the following purposes:

• Provide training to lawyers-trainees who have been graduated in law from the universities.  The basic educational qualification is Bachelor of Law.  Law graduates must pass an exam to the LTC.
• Provide continuing legal education for lawyers.

The LTC is divided into two main sections: the Training Section and the Legal Clinic Section. The Training Section provides theoretical training on the general principles of laws as applied in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The Legal Clinic provides practical training by way of case analysis, group discussions, preparation of legal documents, field visits and moot courts. This class room training lasts for one year.

On completion of the training program, students are required to sit for an examination. Upon passing the examination, successful students are awarded a Certificate of Lawyer’s Professional Skill and are then eligible to undergo an internship in a law office for one more year with supervising lawyer who is already admitted and registered with the Bar for three years.

Annually, the Lawyer Training Center receives 35 to 40 students for such kind of training.

In addition to the departments, the Bar creates three commissions: Commission on Civil Affairs, Commission on Criminal Affairs and Commission on Commercial Affairs. A Commission studies legal issues relevant to its respective expertise and provides recommendations to the Bar for resolution, knowledge sharing, or relay to concerned government institutions. For example, Commission on Commercial Affairs studied draft law on commercial contract and provided recommendations to the drafting Ministry of Commerce.

Now I would like to raise some concerns related to legal practice in Cambodia. As you can see our Bar Association was established in 1995 and the Country began to secure peace in 2000. From then people start talking and thinking about legal implementation and lawyers. So far we can see that the age of Bar and the period of giving value to legal profession are short. Based on these we have faced many issues and concerns as the following:

1. Our institution is still not strong enough in term of managerial experience, both in administration and finance. In addtion, we lack human and financial resources to implement program activities of the Bar
2. Knowledge and skills of lawyers are still limited, especially in international laws and commercial disputes.
3. Rule of law is not yet strong so legal profession is not well respected.

To overcome these issues and concerns, the Bar have tried its best to do many activities to improve and promote its legal profession.

First we have improved institutional development by creating and amending its own internal rules and policies and strategic planning as appropriate such as financial policy, operating manual, code of ethics ...etc.

Secondly, we make legal awareness to the public through radio talk show, TV talk show and seminars and publication. Through these activities, the public will know more about roles and value of lawyers and lawyer will gain their knowledge and skill.

Secondly, we make legal awareness to the public through radio talk show, TV talk show and seminars and publication. Through these activities, the public will know more about roles and value of lawyers and lawyer will gain their knowledge and skill.

At last, we provide legal aid service to the poor, vulnerable, children and women with free of charge in the country as a whole. This program aims to protect the interest, rights of citizen and human rights in Cambodia.

We do hope that through these activities, the Bar can help and urge the government to improve legal implementation and judicial reform in Cambodia.

In this occasion, I would like to stress the importance of knowledge and experience sharing among us so we can promote the rule of law in every corner of our region.

Thank you for your attention.