Judiciary in fresh move to rein in foreign lawyers

Arusha. Foreign lawyers who fail to comply with labour and immigration rules as well as meet other requirements will not be allowed to practise in Tanzania.

The Registrar of the High Court warned last week that those found to be practising without obtaining requisite work permits as stipulated by the law risked being kicked out. The stipulated requirements include the Immigration Act (Cap 54 RE 2002 as amended by the Immigration (Amendment) Act No. 8 of 2015 and the compliance with the provisions of Non-Citizen (Employment Regulation) Act of 2015.

The order, signed by the Registrar of the High Court, Mr I.C. Mugeta, and sent to the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS), the premier bar association in the country, states in part: “All applications to practice law in Tanzania by foreign advocates to His Lordship the Chief Justice shall be considered subject to the compliance with the requirements of both the labour and Immigration rules.”

Although not entirely unexpected, the directive has come at a time of reports that foreign advocates can work in Tanzania after simply being introduced by their resident counterparts to the High Court, which would grant them leave of appearance in local courts.

Although generally seen as a normal procedure for professionals crossing borders, TLS vice president Godwin Ngwilimi said Tanzania should relax its “hardline” stance on cross-border legal practice because it was a party to various regional agreements.

“There is nothing entirely new here. That is the procedure, but Tanzania should be flexible on some aspects of cross-border legal practice because we are not an island,” he said by telephone from Dar es Salaam. Mr Ngwilimi admitted that it was an open secret that Tanzania was not comfortable with the cross border legal practice in the East African Community (EAC) bloc compared with Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

He said the country’s refusal to sign the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on cross-border legal practice, saying it would be counter-productive in the long run. A senior law lecturer at the Nelson Mandela University, Dr Ealiamani Laltaika, said in principle the directive has the directive of the legal fraternity in the country “for national interests”.

He added it could have been aimed to force the advocates intending to practice in Tanzania to follow the basic rules as is the case elsewhere in the world such as being licensed an pay the required fees. The measure could also be aimed to protect the jobs of Tanzanian lawyers given the stiff competition from its fellow EAC partner states.

“You know the legal profession is the most jealous in the world. You find poorly qualified lawyers and you start getting jittery. We have to control this and ensure only the qualified and compliant ones are allowed to practice,” Dr Laltaika said. He added admission to the High Court through an oath was a licence for an advocate to practice locally “and not through mere introduction to the bar”.

He cited cases of foreign lawyers working with some international and regional non-governmental organizations in the country without complying with the set rules for one to practice in Tanzania.

Dr Laltaika admitted that lawyers in Tanzania could be fearing of losing their jobs to their counterparts from Kenya and Uganda because of the large number of members of the bar the two states have compared to Tanzania.