This article aims to reveal the main models of implementation of the bar in the European Union and Central Asia. As some of European Union’s neighboring countries are about to embark on EU accession negotiations, they are looking to reform their justice systems to align them with EU standards. The article provides a comparative legal characteristic of the organization models of the advocate self-gov- ernment bodies in the European Union and Central Asia countries from the point of view of compliance with international standards of Bar’s independence. The authors have identified typical violations of the independence of lawyers’ self-government bodies by the executive bodies of state power in Central Asian countries, shown the degree of their influence on protecting human rights and freedoms, and formulated recommendations aimed at overcoming existing violations’. Advocate self-government should be considered as a manifestation of the principle of independence of the Bar. Since the definition of «independence» is used in a narrow legal sense, it should be understood exclusively as a known measure of legal freedom, free discretion in actions within the boundaries outlined by law. With regard to the Bar, the term «independence» should be interpreted in the context of Recommendations Rec (2000) 21 to the Committee of Ministers to member states on the freedom of exercise of the profession of a lawyer as «freedom of the profession from any undue restrictions, influences, pressure, threats or interference, direct or indirect, from any side or for any reason. By «independence of the Bar» we mean such a legal status of the bodies of the advocates’ community, established by law, which allows them to autonomously and independently from improper interference solve issues of their internal organization, as well as other tasks defined in the law, that is, to exercise self-government.