On January 1 2011, the first unified federal codes of civil and criminal procedure will come into force in Switzerland. This will be the last stage of a large scale legal reform which started in 1996 and dramatically modified the Swiss judicial landscape.
The present paper offers firstly a brief overview of the Swiss legal system. It then presents the major changes that have taken place since 1996, and exposes how these changes affect the legal profession and more specifically the practice of the bar.
The new unified codes will remove today's barriers which hinder a global Swiss legal market. The Swiss law firms employing highly trained and specialised attorneys will be able to offer their skills throughout Switzerland without facing procedural and legal obstacles.
Swiss legal overview
Like the United States and Germany among others, Switzerland is a federal state. The federal state, the Swiss Confederation, comprises twenty-six federated states...