Planned legal reforms branded an assault on the rule of law
Senior judges have condemned plans to overhaul the way Scotland's legal system is regulated, insisting they would amount to an "unwarranted and unacceptable" interference from the government and Parliament.
The Judiciary of Scotland said the proposals would strip Scotland's highest civil court and its Lord President, Lord Carloway, of regulatory powers.
These would instead be transferred to a body responsible to MSPS.
"To be clear, such an interference with the role of the Lord President and the Court of Session in the manner proposed in this consultation is, in our opinion, an interference with the rule of law," the judges said.
Roddy Dunlop QC, dean of the Faculty of Advocates, called the proposals "an assault on the rule of law that must be resisted, root and branch, with tooth and claw".
It comes after SNP ministers consulted on plans to change the way legal services are regulated and complaints against legal service providers are handled.
An independent review previously recommended there should be a single, independent regulator for all providers of legal services.
However, in a damning submission, the Judiciary of Scotland said the consultation “appears to have proceeded on the fundamentally flawed premise that the legal profession in Scotland regulates itself”.
The judges said: “This is incorrect. The regulator of the legal profession is the Court of Session in the form of the Lord President.”
They said all three of the proposed new models would see regulatory powers removed from the court, adding: "This would create an unwarranted and unacceptable interference by the government and parliament with the judiciary."
Their submission added: "The judiciary will resist with all its strength this and any other attempt by government or Parliament to remove the court's regulatory powers."
The judges said the current framework “has been specifically designed to respect the need for lawyers to be able to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individual citizens".
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We thank the judiciary for their response to the consultation, which has generated a wide variety of opinions, and will carefully consider their views.”