A LEGAL MONOPOLY

If you live in another country for a while, as I have done, then every once in a while something crops up, which is surprising. Not just surprising in the sense of "not what we do in my country", but surprising in the the sense of  "not what the other country is supposed to stand for". Today's Danish surprise was when I learned about the Kammeradvokat.

The kammeradvokat (literally the chamber lawyer) is an office founded way back in 1684 by the then King Christian V. His role was as a counsellor, who worked exclusively on state business. In 1936, the post was given for the first time to someone who was allowed to retain his existing private legal practice. Nothing wrong in that; though there could have been conflict of interest issues. The real problem is that the private practice in question has retained the kammeradvokat post, with its monopoly of Government business, ever since. With the growth of Government since then, it now brings in an income of some kr.280 million (roughly £30m) a year. A nice little monopoly.                

This is not the way that things are done in the U.K. However, and more fundamentally, lucrative monopolies are not something I associate with the modern Danish state. After 75 years, the politicians seem to have woken up to the problem. The office of Kammeradvokat is to be put out to tender later this year. I might even bid.

Walter Blotscher