Alternativen der Rechtsberatung: Dienstleistung, Fürsorge und kollektive Selbsthilfe

Abstract

This paper criticizes the theoretical background of different forms of legal aid to socially and financially underprivileged groups. The existing patterns of the attorney-client type of legal service and the public provision of legal services have different effects on the relationships between a client and his counsellor and the manner in which a counsellor defines his client’s interest and acts to protect them. Legal services provided through union legal aid offices (die “Arbeitersekretariate”) around the turn of the century give a historical example of collective forms of legal services. For the same reasons that led to the development of socially protective regulations within the substantive law, the legal services offered by attorneys proved to be unsatisfactory for the socially underprivileged groups. There were two historical responses to this problem: A collective representation of interests and a welfare orientated “rule of law” approach (“Rechtsfriedensbewegung”, which constituted a countermovement to the “Arbeitersekretariate”). The ‘rule of law’ movement attempted to achieve a conflict-free integration of all social contradictions. Yet another way to provide social services has been followed by the British trade unions. Unlike the German unions they were not incorporated into the formal legal system, a fact which allowed them to develop their own “extra-legal” forms of negotiations with regard to labour conflicts.