No abstract
According to the South African Law Reform Commission, money laundering is the manipulation of illegally acquired wealth in order to obscure its true source or nature. This is achieved by performing a series of transactions with the proceeds of criminal activities that, if successful, will leave the illegally derived proceeds appearing as a product of legitimate transactions or investments. Professional money laundering assists and strengthens organised crime and may contribute to the undermining of the civil society and the financial system of a country. Attorneys as professionals are no doubt in a precarious position. On the one hand there is the duty to keep in confidence private information pertaining to clients’ affairs which is no doubt essential to the attorney-client relationship and on the other hand there is the duty to the community to uphold the ethics of the profession. Attorneys may find that they are caught between these seemingly conflicting duties and the question is which duty is more important. This article weighs the newly-imposed duties on the legal profession pertaining to money laundering against the equally important principle of attorney-client privilege and asks whether it is possible to reconcile anti-money laundering obligations with legal professional privilege. The article considers the latter duty in light of the ethics of the legal profession in South Africa and the foundation of legal professional conduct. In addition, the position in the United Kingdom and in Canada is also considered. Against this background it is argued that there is no need to regulate the South African professional legal industry any further. Until FICA’s reporting provisions are formally challenged in the Constitutional Court, attorneys will continue to remain uncertain as totheir position, notwithstanding the fact that guidance notes have been issued to aid attorneys in this regard. In order to comply with FICA and simultaneously preserve the attorney-client relationship, attorneys need to educate clients on the provisions of FICA. Furthermore, legal practitioners should have a sound legal knowledge of FICA in order help the State combat organised crime and laundering activities. Finally, it is advisable to keep up to date with the latest guidelines which regarding the independence of the profession; possible infringements of the fundamental right to privacy and potential threats to the confidential attorney-client relationship. It is the awareness of this precarious balance that will ensure compliance with the FICA without causing the attorneys’ profession to lose its credibility.
A simple, inexpensive intraoperative test to estimate the probability of adequate speech development following cleft palatal or pharyngeal flap surgery is described. Its results were reviewed in 151 patients over a 10-year period. The positive predictive value of the test is 92% for not requiring further surgery and 83% for development of adequate speech. The results and their meaning are discussed.
3Ala'i and Vaughn International Handbook on Transparency 2. 13 See for example the third generation European Union Directives on insurance: European Union Directive 92/94/EEZ (Third Non-life Insurance Directive) and European Union Directive 92/96/EEZ (Third Life Insurance Directive) that apply to all EU Member States. An interesting distinction made in the EU is that so-called "large risks" and reinsurance fall beyond the scope of the statutory precontractual information duty. Large risks are described in PEICL 1:103(2)(a), (b) and (c). Such a distinction is foreign to our law. Information duties, whether pre-contractual or during the existence of the contract, apply to most policies. Differentiation applies to the content of disclosures, depending on the type of cover and the nature of the risks insured. 14 37 of 2002, specifically s 16(2)(a) and (c).
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