Voluntary Law Society Membership

It is good to see that membership of the Law Society is set to become voluntary.

One of the arguments supporters of compulsory membership of student associations have made, is that if the law society is compulsory, why can’t they be.

One answer has been that the law society does professional regulation, which student associations do not do. But law societies do more than that, and do advocate politically on issues. Hence I have been a long time supporter of having law the same as medicine.

In medicine everyone has to pay a compulsory levy (to the Medicial Council) for registration and the costs of a disciplinary process. And if they wish to they can also join the NZ Medical Association which advocates on issues.

In law, the NZ Law Society will be the regulator, and lawyers can choose whether to join theri voluntary district law societies (which may merge into a national one).

This is what should happen on campuses. Student association membership should be voluntary. Any essential student services (and few of these are provided by SAs) should be funded by the tertiary institute.