From pro Deo to pro Pecunia: An Institutional History of Legal Aid in Belgium

From pro Deo to pro Pecunia : An Institutional History of Legal Aid in Belgium

This chapter analyses the institutional history of legal aid in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Belgium, exploring the distinction between two different aspects of legal aid: the exemption from procedural costs and legal assistance by lawyers. The possibility of having procedural costs exempted has its roots in the Dutch period (1815–1830). The foundations of the modern system of legal aid, in turn, were laid by Napoleon at the turn of the nineteenth century. He required the bar associations to install an Office of Free Consultations where the poor could go for free legal advice. From early on, the Office only appointed trainee lawyers to assist the poor. During the nineteenth century, legal aid was understood to be a public charity service (pro Deo) and therefore it was completely free. Over the course of the twentieth century, lawyers’ attitudes changed and they began charging fees to the poor. In 1980, the state intervened and provided financial remuneration for legal assistance by lawyers (pro Pecunia). In 1994, legal aid became a constitutional right. This led to fundamental changes and perhaps to an overconsumption of legal assistance, which the state has been trying to rectify in recent years.

Ingår i:Histories of Legal AidCham : Palgrave Macmillan, s. 57-88978303080270797830308027389783030802714

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