Setting of Advocates' Organization in Indonesia with the Single Bar Model to Realize Advocates' Professionalism

Abstract

In various countries, advocate organizations or Bar Associations in practice are not uniform in form (single bar, multi bar, federation), which is influenced by a number of factors including the legal system, history, professional development and choice of professional needs. Institutionally, the form and system with many advocate organizations in a country are acceptable, but the same standards are still needed to create standardized advocate quality. Referring to the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the Government, Advocate Professional Organizations and Educational Institutions must jointly ensure that advocates undergo an adequate education and training system, and have knowledge of the duties and functions of an ideal and ethical advocate. Although the Advocate Law has adopted a single bar to carry out the function of a single regulator, in practice it shows that many organizations when carrying out the function of an advocate organization cannot in fact guarantee the same standards in maintaining the quality of the advocate profession. The process of recruiting advocates, for example, uses different standards between one organization and another, making it difficult to ensure the competence/quality of the same advocate. Enforcement of the Advocate Code of Ethics is also still considered insufficient, because advocates who are suspected of violating ethics when being processed in an advocate organization may still be able to change their membership to another advocate organization.