Objectivity requirement
The requirement of objectivity as part of the professional law of lawyers is regulated in Germany in § 43a Paragraph 3 of the Federal Lawyers' Act (BRAO). According to this, a lawyer may "not behave improperly in his professional practice". Two types of behavior on the part of the lawyer in particular violate the objectivity requirement:
- the “conscious dissemination of untruths”, § 43a Paragraph 3 Sentence 2 Var. 1 BRAO and
- "Disparaging remarks to which other parties or the course of the proceedings gave no cause", Section 43a Paragraph 3 Var. 2 BRAO
The disparaging remarks include insults in particular . In 2015, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a conviction of a lawyer for insult in the case decided there was an excessive interference with the fundamental rights to freedom of expression according to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the right to a fair trial according to Art. 6 I ECHR.