2023-12-07 06:53:56
I am one more number among the 78,395 enrolled in the Law School from the Dominican Republic; a membership as forced as it was resisted.
I have practiced this profession for three decades and I hardly feel part of that group. Not even the possession of an old license binds me beyond the legal obligation. What’s more, wearing it embarrasses me. If because of that conviction they consider me an elitist, then I have rarely felt so deservedly flattered, because the Law School It has been an honorable affront.
And I’m not saying this because of the events linked to their recent elections – that is hardly an episodic fact; It is a story of denials of principles, commitments and basic vocations of a professional association.
He Law School It has been an estate of its managers, dominated by autocratic and opaque management, without transparency, accountability or consequences. It is an institution kidnapped by political opportunism to obtain benefits of all kinds and to accredit, in front of its parties, the “merit” for an elective or government position. That union represents nothing more than those who control it.
In it Law School unionism is a facade. True interests are personal and tied to political notebooks. That is why it is no coincidence that the same names are always in the running and less than thirty percent of their enrollment votes.
The painful thing is to admit that an institution with these degradations has by law the ethical discretion of the legal profession or the management of public funds such as those destined for the Institute for the Protection of Lawyers. But Law School It does not even serve to express the electoral strength of the political organizations that exploit it; Their elections do not achieve that impression, because in them the majority of members of the parties that are vying for control vote.
Hence, more than a professional group, the union is, in fact, a political representation of registered lawyers. As long as these intentions dominate, there will be no way to recover the founding paths.
The dispute unleashed on the occasion of their elections is to market the illusion that a victory (whether for the government or the opposition) reflects the general electoral trends, when what should draw attention is why in an entity with a mandatory registration of Almost 80,000 members vote, just under 25,000 lawyers, using political parties all means to achieve maximum participation, as it is a pre-electoral year. It is in this correlation where the true drama of the school lies, a picture overshadowed by the political feast.
Few lawyers care about the union, convinced that the political kidnapping of its structures does not give them space for legitimate rescue proposals. Furthermore, competing in this power game is an unequal fight that encourages few to fight it. That leaves the institution at the mercy of political predation. And it is that he Law School It does not withstand a medium-rigor audit, a situation that occurs when there are no fiduciary management obligations or a consolidated regime of responsibilities. That is why Surum Hernández’s rabid resistance to the Accounts Chamber auditing his accounts is no coincidence.
But sometimes it is good that, as in street brawls, the feints of the contenders reveal their panties; In this way, if there is any blush left, Dominican society will be able to recognize how its institutions are doing and in this way avoid accommodating itself to the belief that appearances are always consistent with underlying realities.
In the Bar Association, unionism is a facade. True interests are personal and tied to political notebooks. That is why it is no coincidence that the same names are always in the running and less than thirty percent of their enrollment votes.
Lawyer, essayist, academic, editor.
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