C22 - Wednesday, May 9, 1984 - North Shore News

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A BITTER dispute between a trapper and a fur trader ends in murder in what is now British Columbia.

A Hudson Bay Company policeman, doubling as chief executioner in the gold rush colony, makes an arrest.

No lawyers. No witnesses. No jury. No judge. Only the burly Hudson Bay Company employee who was to be remembered as ‘‘The Terrible Waccan’’. He metes out a rough and ready justice — death.

In a wilderness bounded by mountains to the east and the Pacific to the west, such was “‘law and justice’’ in the early 1800s.

But 100 years ago this year, on February 1, 1884, the first semblance of justice in the west was confirmed with the proclamation of the Legal Professions Act.

In effect, the Act gave statutory recognition to the Law Society of British Col- umbia dnd began traditions that still endure today as the province’s lawyers celebrate their centerary.

An international sym- posium in Vancouver August 22-24, featuring as par- ticipants well-known legal ex- perts from Australia, New Zealand, England and Canada, will make the birth- day of British Columbia’s legal system.

The symposium, ‘‘Focus on the future’’, will examine the role of the legal profes- sion in the 2\st century.

Some 25 years before the Legal Profession Act was Passed, Matthew Baillie Begbie was sworn in as the first justice of the new mainland colony of British Columbia. He soon publish- ed a court order officially recognizing barristers and solicitors.

Less than a month later on the separate colony of Van- couver Island, Governor James Douglas accepted the credentials of that colony’s first practising lawyer, Henry Pering Pellew Crease.

With the merger of the two colonies in 1866, Crease — then Attorney General convened a meeting of lawyers to form an associa- tion to deal with admission of members and their disciplines.

Thirteen lawyers cstablish- ed a Society with the objec- tives of forming a law library, publishing legal deci- sions; regulating the call to the Bar, and the advance- ment and protection of the legal profession. The annual subscription fee was set at $10.

This was the group that gaincd legal status in 1884 as the Law Society of British Columbia.

Today, the law Socicty ad- ministers the professional af. fairs of the province’s 5,200 lawyers.

The Socicty’s governing council is made up of 25 **Benchers’’, clected by the profession. They determine who will be admiticd to the Bar, they set standards of professional conduct for Society members, and thcy discipline members guilty of professional misconduct or incompctent practice.

Although incorporated by provincial statuic, the icgal profession is scif-governing in B.C. The government docs not attempt to regulate the Socicty’s activitics.

‘The right of = sclf- government carries with it the overtiding duty of protecting the public anterest,’" says frank Macvko, the Socicty’s sccrctary

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**We are not a professional association for lawyers, nor are we a trade union. When the interests of our members

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conflict with the public in-

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**Lex Liberorum Rex’’

translates, literally, to ‘‘Law

is the king of free men’’.

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Lawyers, he wrote, have a responsibility, indeed, that “if law is king, that it does justice to free men’’.

published 10 years ago, Alfred Watts, Q.C., said the motto offers a continuing challenge to members.

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