Legal Privilege and Right to Counsel in Criminal Proceedings in Switzerland

A lawyer can only practice his profession effectively and properly if the client has complete trust in his lawyer’s discretion. This indispensable trust is safeguarded by the institute of legal privilege, commonly referred to as the attorney-client privilege, an unconditional guarantee of confidentiality. While the scope of the attorney-client privilege in criminal proceedings cannot be any other than in civil or administrative proceedings, defence counsels are confronted with unique issues regarding the implementation and enforcement of the attorney-client privilege and effective defence of the accused person. The aim of this contribution is to give the reader a basic understanding of the right to counsel, the attorney-client privilege and exclusionary rules under Swiss law, in general as well as in the context of criminal proceedings. Each chapter follows the template of questions asked in preparation of the XXth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law. The authors address specific difficulties defence counsels can be confronted with in practice, argue how to deal with these issues with regard to their duties and discuss problems regarding the right to counsel that have arisen with the implementation of the Federal Criminal Procedure code since its introduction in 2011.