On April 11, 2025, the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia deliberated and adopted the draft law on repealing certain provisions of the Law on Advocacy.

This amendment abolished the unfair restriction requiring lawyers to be exempted from certain jobs or positions before taking the advocate qualification exam, thereby creating conditions to ensure the right of lawyers to freely choose their profession.

The draft law initiators argued that Articles 15.1.12 and 15.1.13 of the Law on Advocacy, which prohibit individuals holding certain jobs or positions from engaging in advocacy activities concurrently and thus reject their application for the exam, excessively restrict the fundamental right to freely choose a profession and to work, by requiring lawyers to be released from their current job before it is clear whether they will be able to practice advocacy. Therefore, they submitted the draft law to the State Great Hural.

As a result of this restriction, in 2023, out of 283 lawyers who applied for advocacy qualification, 45 lawyers were disqualified from taking the exam due to preliminary screening.

Due to this issue, lawyers and citizens repeatedly filed complaints to the Constitutional Court. Although the Constitutional Court’s conclusion in 2022 stated that the provision did not violate the Constitution, it also noted that the provision may restrict the constitutional right to freely choose one’s profession.

Member of Parliament G. Uyanga-Khishig, as a legislator, proposed the draft law to repeal Article 8.6.3 of Section 8 of the Law on Advocacy and submitted it to the State Great Hural on March 17, 2025. She emphasized that lawyers wishing to engage in advocacy should have the opportunity to take the exam and only after successfully passing should they be required to leave their previous job. Forcing candidates to leave their job before taking the exam excessively restricts human rights and creates a situation where failing the exam results in loss of employment and livelihood. She further noted the need to revise such logically inconsistent provisions one by one.

She highlighted that this amendment is a concrete example of the practical results of implementing the “Three Pillars of Excellence” policy of a human-centered, rule-of-law, and responsible parliament set forth in the State Great Hural’s 2024–2028 strategic plan.