Professional body: Encyclopedia II - Professional body - Legal functions

Professional body - Legal functions

In countries where the legal system entitles defendants to a jury by their peers, the general public may not be considered sufficiently knowledgeable in a field of practice to act as a peer in some legal cases. For example, the average person may not be able to determine if a civil engineer took reasonable care to ensure a bridge would not collapse. Therefore, the government may define self-governing professional associations of peers in specific fields.

As part of their self-governing mandate, professional associations are usually responsible for licensing of practitioners in their field. Furthermore, a person is usually prohibited from advertising as a "professional" unless they are a member in good standing of the relevant professional association.

Medical, engineering, architecture, accounting and legal practitioners are commonly governed by professional associations in most localities.

Professional associations do not always concern themselves with licensing or the equivalent or government regulations. In the United States, journalists seek to avoid government involvement in their work or "official" definitions.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Legal functions", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki