Wearing the veil and the lawyer’s robe, irreconcilable attributes

It would look like the poisoned cake unwittingly offered by Asterix to Queen Cleopatra. Since last June, the National Bar Council (CNB) has been working on the tricky question of the wearing of the veil by lawyers who plead before the Court. A year ago, the Court of Cassation incidentally led the profession down this slippery slope of law. On March 2, she responded to a student lawyer from the Lille bar who was offended that the local Bar Association had decided that “the lawyer cannot wear with the robe or decoration, no sign ostensibly manifesting a religious, philosophical, community or political affiliation or opinion“. “In the absence of a specific legislative provision and in the absence of a regulatory provision enacted by the CNB, it falls within the remit of a council of the order to regulate the wearing and use of the costume of its profession.“, she affirmed, implicitly referring the CNB to its responsibility to harmonize at the national level…