Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Among members of the legal profession and judiciarysional throughout the world, there is a genuine concern with establishing and maintaining high ethical standards. It is not difficult to understand why this should be so. But, in order to ensure that the standards established are the right ones, it is necessary first of all to examine important philosophical and policy issues. Such an examination is the purpose of this book.

Written by a distinguished group of law teachers and practitioners together with senior members of the judiciary, the book has as its underlying themes:

BL that the move to more definite rules is not only inevitable but also desirable

BL that existing codes of professional practice cannot simply be treated as a system of specific rules

BL that the current set of ethical rules is contestable and requires further refinement, perhaps even radical surgery

BL and that legal ethics must be conceived in the more general area of professional responsibility