The Spring conference started on friday evening in the Ceremonial Hall of the Czech Technical University in Prague – Bethlehem Chapel with short welcome words by Martin Vychopeň, President of the Czech Bar Association and Holger Matt, chairman of the ECBA and was followed by a piano concert as well as a reception.

On saturday the conference started with welcome words of Petr Jäger, deputy of the Minister of Justice of the Czech Republic, who spoke on general principles of law and fundamental rights (including the attorney client privilege) in the Czech Republic, followed by Antonin Mokry (Vice-President of the CCBE), who spoke on cooperation between the CCBE and the ECBA in the field of defence rights and also the attorney client privilege as well the protection of client´s data. Holger Matt gave an insight into the ECBA´s view on these topics.

The first panel (chaired by Miroslav Krutina) dealt with the right to confidentiality and legal privilege. Pavel Zeman, Supreme Public Prosecutor of the Czech Republic, talked about the balance in criminal procedures between the aim „to find the truth“ and the rights of the accused that have to be maintained. For this reason the right to a fair trial is most important for all sides involved (court, prosecution, defence). He stressed that all sides have to stick to ethical behaviour so that the right to a fair trial can be guaranteed (and through disciplinary procedures). Furthermore he gave an overview of how the attorney-client privilege is protected in the Czech Republic (with respect to house searches, seizures etc). The same topic was then monitored by two representatives of the Czech Bar: Tomas Gřivna (who spoke on the ECtHR´s jurisdiction in this field as well as its protection by Czech law) and Filip Seifert (who also talked on the shortcomings of the Czech Code of Criminal Procedure in regard to this problem). The presentations were followed by some discussion and statements from the floor.

The next panel on „protection of clients´ information in the age of IT“ was introduced by Jan Balatka (Deloitte, Czech Republic), who gave an very interesting overview on the technical background of the topic. He explained how data on a lawyer´s computer can be secured effectively. Iain Mitchell (Chair of the CCBE WG on Surveillance, UK) talked on the work of the CCBE WG on Surveillance in this field and explained it with regard to Art 6 and 8 ECHR. The session was closed by practical guidance on this topic by Marc Henzelin (CH).

This was followed by a big panel discussion on the general topic of the conference. It turned around general problems like the „fruits of the poisonous tree – doctrine“ (the question whether illegally obtained evidence [e.g. phone calls of lawyers with their clients] can be used in criminal procedures) etc.

The next panel gave an update on the ECBA´s activities in regard to their various working groups (e.g. on the new SUPRALAT-project, the EAW-handbook, money laundering and the new road map on procedural rights – a new iniative of the ECBA) as well as a „promotion“ of the EFCL´s next conference on 9 June 2017 in Frankfurt (GER) and the CCBE´s contribution in regard to the Regulation on EPPO.

The conference was closed as usually with national and European reports on the legal situation in respect to criminal defence. This time we also had the chance to hear a report on the situation in Palestine by Nael Taha.

The conference was closed by a very lively dinner in the old town of Prague.

By Roland Kier