Lupicinio Rodríguez, managing partner of Lupicinio International Law Firm (LILF), personally, joined in April 2023 to the action brought by the civil association of French Law AVOCATS ENSEMBLE (ACE) before the General Court of the European Union against the Council of the European Union, and requested the annulment of the Article 5(n) paragraphs 1, 2 and 5 of the Regulation (UE) 2022/1094 of the Council of 6 October 2022, amending the Regulation (UE) 833/2014 of 31 July 2014, on restrictive measures in relation to the destabilizing actions of Russia in Ukraine (DOUE L 259, 6 October 2022, p. l, 3).
The Commission and the Republic of Estonia, in support of the Council, have also joined the litigation. Such a large number of interveners emphasises the great importance of the litigation and of what is at stake, essentially, the provision of professional services to Russian companies and entities.
The contested regulation of the Council of the European Union extends the ban of direct or indirect provision of particular services to Russia, which includes legal assistance to any Russian legal person in non-litigation matters. That measure is, in our opinion, an unprecedented violation of freedom of legal professionals and breaks the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Article 47), the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 6.1), and numerous judgements of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The measure infringes the rights of Russian companies and entities, their relations with Public Administrations and other companies in the exercise of the object of the company, to legal protection and advisory or transactional legal assistance. Denying a WTO member – subject to multiple trade rules and regulations – the right to be eligible for legal assistance implies the flagrant violation of the “rules of law”.
LILF’s International Sanctions Boutique, renowned Firm for its outstanding expertise in international sanctions, led by its founding partner Lupicinio Rodríguez Jiménez, always striving to defend the fundamental rights of the law professionals in Europe and in the rest of the world, fully supports the efforts of ACE to achieve the annulment of this unfair and illegal measure, and will firmly intervene in the action of annulment with the certainty of always being at the vanguard of the struggle against any restriction on freedom of legal professionals. Lupicinio is the founder and president of Scevola, Association for Ethics and Quality in Law, that is active since 1998.
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