The article discusses the regulatory trends and new challenges that the legal profession is currently facing in Europe. To show the complexity and specificity of the professional phenomenon, this article opens with an overview of the main dominant theory – constructions on professions in sociology – followed by analysis of the economic theories of regulation, with particular regards to the public interest and private interest theories. The analysis suggests that the lens through which the professions may be perceived can be different, if not opposite, and as a consequence, the rationale for professional services regulation might be very distant. Starting from the specific EU position towards the application of the competition law in the professional sector, this article provides a comparative analysis of the current legal profession regulations across Europe, considering rules affecting entry restrictions, as well as some restrictions on conduct. This article suggests that the European legal profession is gradually moving from a professional-independence approach to a consumer-centric perspective, even if several forms of alternative resistance are still in place, as the Italian experience shows. In view of the comparative analysis conducted, this article claims that the paradigm of professionalism is not condemned to succumb to commercialism; instead it seems to have hybridized its nature in favour of a new model of regulation, able to promote market competition and innovation without, however, renouncing professionalism and its core values.
European Review of Private Law