Opening Address at the International Bar Association Conference

President Neate, distinguished participants to the Annual Conference of IBA, Ladies and Gentlemen,

it was my pleasure to learn, a couple of months ago, that your annual conference would take place this autumn in Prague, in the capital of the Czech Republic. I hope that Prague, through its natural beuaty as well as its conference facilities, will be a good host and will make all of your demanding and time-consuming working sessions pleasant and productive.

President of Czech Republic opening International Bar Association Conference

The International Bar Association does enjoy the reputation of an organization dedicated to the enhancement of the position of the legal profession and to the promotion of the professional standards in this field. It is an organization which tries to intensify the exchange of information and of views as well as to contribute to the quality of education and of training. These are fields of activities which are of importance world-wide, in spite of the sometimes different systems of law and law enforcement which the individual nations have. I think it is fair to suppose that the IBA, having through its broad membership the privilege of a truly global view, is not aiming at a uniformity, but rather seeks a global understanding based on mutually shared values.

We live in a very complicated world now. In a world of human rights, if not in a world of humanrightism. Many partial, only so called rights – consumers´ rights, animal´s rights, children´s, women´s, handicaped´s etc. rights replaced traditional understanding of rights. These new rights, when adopted by legal systems and lawyers, lead to many serious consequences which begin to complicate the life of society and its quality. We witness cases of breaking traditional understanding of relations within the society. Lawyers, attorneys and their associations are both consumers and initiators of this new legislative and judical wave, which brings about more regulation in every aspect of our lives and which brings many human activities under the legal regulation. I am sure you will discuss all of that here.

I hope as well that the Czech Bar Association and the Czech lawyers will be visible here. The present-day generation of Czech lawyers has experienced two subsequent essential changes. First was, beginning in 1989, connected with the adaptation of our entire enacted law to the requirements of open society, political democracy and market economy. This brought our domestic legal profession into rich contact with foreign lawyers and law systems. The second has been connected with our membership in the European Union, with the adoption of the legislation of the EU, which was another challenge.

It is not my ambition to make a contribution to your discussion. Let me, therefore, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, declare the 52nd Annual Conference of the International Bar Association opened.

Václav Klaus, Prague, Congress Center, September 26, 2005