Legal Ethics

Дидикин А.Б. Аналитическая философия права: истоки, генезис и структура. Монография. Томск, Изд-во ТГУ, 2016. - 244 с. В приложении к монографии - переводы статей Г. Кельзена "Абсолютизм и релятивизм в философии и политике", "Причинность и вменение", "Об основной норме", выполненные автором.

Marcus Aurelius once said, “If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it”. Compliance to this is not as easy as it seems, especially with the advent of social media. Social media is defined by the Law Society as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking”. Ruparel and Burnham identify Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube as the most widely used social media channels for law firms and lawyers. Social media  is an effective tool for marketing legal services, but since its application in the legal profession is relatively new, its professional and personal usage has become susceptible to Code of Conduct breaches by lawyers who do not take it seriously. In this essay, breaches under the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will be considered. The SRA was established in January 2007 as part of the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA 2007), and functions as the independent regulator of solicitors. In August 2017, the SRA issued a Warning Notice on Offensive Communications, which provides guidance on the use of emails and social media by solicitors professionally and privately. This includes making offensive or perjorative comments regarding another person’s race, sexual orientation or religion, referring to women in derogatory terms and making sexually explicit statements, making comments that harass or victimise the recipient and using language resulting in shock or threat. The notice also emphasised the need for compliance to Principle 1, 2, 6 and 9. This essay will deconstruct two cases wherein solicitors breached the SRA Code of Conduct through their social media behaviour. The first case that will be analysed is SRA v Mahmood, wherein a solicitor was fined and suspended for posting racist remarks on Facebook. The second case that will be analysed is the case of Mark Small who was fined for tweeting about winning a case against parents of children with Special Education needs. In both cases, the ethical dilemmas involved and SRA Principles breached will be critically analysed. Measures that each solicitor should have taken in order to prevent the breach will also be discussed.

Many states have adopted reciprocity in their bar admission rules. Through most reciprocity rules, an attorney who has practiced law for a set period of time in one state may obtain reciprocal bar admission in another state assuming they meet character and fitness requirements for the practice of law in that state. Many admission on motion rules also provide for admission to a state bar if an individual has engaged in “the teaching of law as an instructor in a law school or schools accredited by the American Bar Association.”

While these rules provide for admission for law professors in law schools, they do not provide for admission for teachers of law outside of ABA-accredited law schools. This article argues for inclusivity for state admission on motion rules for teachers of law outside of ABA-accredited law schools if those teachers, by the “greater weight of the evidence” standard, demonstrate to a state bar contributions to the legal profession.

This paper formed the basis of a talk delivered at the EU Parliment Buildings in Brussels on 6th February 2020 at an event organised by Prof. Dr. Klaus Buchner MdEP ÖDP and Forum Soziale Inklusion e.V.

Link to oral presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdTTXnOJ91I

Summary:

This focuses on the ethical issues facing lawyers practising in this area by looking at two questions:

1. Who are parental alienated clients? This section looks at the issues arising from vulnerable clients who might have unrealistic expectations or too low expectations. We consider time as a potential enemy of a non custodial parent: lawyers, judges and clinical professionals may miss something important in the context of busy schedules.

2. Are they better off without a lawyer? This part of the paper discusses some advantages and disadvantages of hiring a lawyer.

The Highly dramatised cable television series 'Suits' attempts to portray the corporate lawyer and the high-octane drama surrounding the practice of the New York corporate bar. While irksome to many practicing lawyers, the series provides an opportunity. Particular attention can be paid to creating a dialogue; educating an audience larger than lawyers on the ethical dilemmas of legal practice. This article examines the ethical approaches to lawyering presented within the series providing examples to the challenges of legal ethics. These ethical dilemmas are then contrasted against those conveyed within the show originating from other professions running along major themes of confidentiality and conflicts of interest.

This book is dedicated to expert research topics, and analyses of ethics-related inquiry, at the machine ethics and morality level: key players, benefits, problems, policies, and strategies. Gathering some of the leading voices that recognize and understand the complexities and intricacies of human-machine ethics early on in this phenomenon provides a resourceful compendium to be accessed by decision-makers and theorists concerned with identification and adoption of human-machine ethics initiatives, leading to needed policy adoption and reform for human-machine entities, their technologies, and their societal and legal obligations. The book encompasses theory and practice sections for each topical component of important areas of human-machine ethics both in existence today, and prospective for the future. Yet, human-machine ethics is not a futuristic matter; it is ever-present, here and now – thanks largely to ongoing technological advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and synthetic biology, among other allied fields.

This paper focuses on analyzing ethical decision-making processes, different frameworks, challenges, and risks. In this short research, I will try to go through different approaches that are most commonly used, will try to showcase each method’s features and components, pros, and cons, how a leader can use those techniques to overcome ethical dilemmas or difficulties, and finally, make the right choice by choosing the best alternative possible.

This paper is an excerpt from the book “The young Lawyer, Ethics & Practice” by Ashu Hailshamy. It is a chapter of the said book and was carefully chosen by the author to share more knowledge on the lawyer’s duty to the court.  As Counsel, you owe a compelling duty, to treat the Court with utmost courtesy and respect. This duty includes respect to all persons with whom you have professional contact with such as Judges, colleagues, staff of Court and parties to litigation including witnesses, etc. This is Ethics compels you to conduct yourself properly before the court because before being a lawyer for your client, you are first and foremost a lawyer and officer of the court. You must bear in mind that, you owe a duty to the court to assist at all-times whether as instructed counsel or as Amicus Curiae. This is the reason you are considered an officer of the court,  a disciple of Justice working in and for the temple of Justice. 


Ashu Hailshamy  ESQ.
(LL.B Hons University of Buea, B.L Hons The Gambia Law School)
Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of The Gambia
Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA), Banjul The Gambia.
Email: ashu.shamy@yahoo.com
Tel: +220 2615598

[en] Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that raises important issues, especially ethical ones. The European Commission appointed an independent group of experts (High-Level Experts Group) to discuss these issues. A draft was published on December 18, 2018 and was opened for public consultation (Draft Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI). The Report was published on April 8, 2019 (Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI). This article analyze this document and its genesis. Its objective is threefold: to present European efforts, analyze the pitfalls of an ethical approach (Ethics Lobbying, Ethics Shopping, Ethics Bluewashing and Ethics Dumping) and explain why such an approach remains interesting despite its intrinsic difficulties, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship of ethics and legal science.

[fr] L'intelligence artificielle (IA) est une technologie qui soulève d'importants enjeu, notamment éthiques. Pour y répondre, la Commission européenne a appointé un groupe d'experts indépendant (High-Level Experts Group). Un projet fut publié le 18 décembre 2018 et fut ouvert à consultation publique (Draft Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI). Le Rapport fut publié le 8 avril 2019 (Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI). Cet article fait le point sur ce document et sa genèse. Son objectif est triple: présenter les efforts européens, analyser les écueils d'une approche éthique (Ethics Lobbying, Ethics Shopping, Ethics Bluewashing et Ethics Dumping) et expliquer pourquoi une telle approche reste intéressante malgré ses difficultés intrinsèques, insistant sur la relation symbiotique de l'éthique et de la science juridique.

The most important function of counselling is to provide a service to the client that promotes the client’s autonomy and development which must take priority in the relationship within an ethical framework.  Having good intentions is not good enough as the counsellor’s awareness of the relationship into which the client and counsellor enter together and awareness of the impacts between the two people on each other is what facilitates the effectiveness and outcome (Bond, 2010).  The counsellor themselves is an instrument and their willingness to be a real person in the relationship (Corey, 2001).

We thank C. S. I. Jenkins and Neil Levy for their thoughtful comments on our article about love and addiction (Earp, Wudarczyk, Foddy, & Savulescu, in press). While we do not have room for a comprehensive reply, we would like to touch on a few main issues.

Notice and Complaint filed on 5/11/22 versus US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judges sitting in Richmond, Virginia.

The US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals does not have "subject matter jurisdiction" to process a Reciprocal Disciplinary case when the original Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board Order was void ab initio when entered by the VSB DB based on only Virginia courts having "subject matter jurisdiction" to impose discipline on any attorney practicing law in Virginia.

See VA Code § 54.1-3915. Restrictions as to rules and regulations. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title54.1/chapter39/section54.1-3915/

Supreme Court of Virginia v. Consumers Union, 446 U.S. 719 (1980) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/446/719/

From a ‘practical standpoint’, Daicoff reassures us that a ‘number of non- traditional approaches to lawyering and justice’ are ‘consistent with moral lawyering or caring lawyering’.  And while I would still be highly critical of Daicoff’s ongoing use of ‘typical’ (thinking) or ‘atypical’ (feeling) personality traits (as meaningful or relevant to ‘lawyer distress’), she does clearly recognize the importance of lawyers preserving their own emotional integrity (under the historic and current onslaught of commercial competitiveness) and for this to be viewed as a valued ‘asset’ informing the essential need for ‘moral lawyering and caring lawyering’ in the future.

- Result of “the Onlife Initiative,” a one-year project funded by the European Commission to study the deployment of ICTs and its effects on the human condition
- Inspires reflection on the ways in which a hyperconnected world forces the rethinking of the conceptual frameworks on which policies are built
- Draws upon the work of a group of scholars from a wide range of disciplines including, anthropology, cognitive science, computer science, law, philosophy, political science

What is the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the human condition? In order to address this question, in 2012 the European Commission organized a research project entitled The Onlife Initiative: concept reengineering for rethinking societal concerns in the digital transition. This volume collects the work of the Onlife Initiative. It explores how the development and widespread use of ICTs have a radical impact on the human condition.

ICTs are not mere tools but rather social forces that are increasingly affecting our self-conception (who we are), our mutual interactions (how we socialise); our conception of reality (our metaphysics); and our interactions with reality (our agency). In each case, ICTs have a huge ethical, legal, and political significance, yet one with which we have begun to come to terms only recently.

The impact exercised by ICTs is due to at least four major transformations: the blurring of the distinction between reality and virtuality; the blurring of the distinction between human, machine and nature; the reversal from information scarcity to information abundance; and the shift from the primacy of stand-alone things, properties, and binary relations, to the primacy of interactions, processes and networks.

Such transformations are testing the foundations of our conceptual frameworks. Our current conceptual toolbox is no longer fitted to address new ICT-related challenges. This is not only a problem in itself. It is also a risk, because the lack of a clear understanding of our present time may easily lead to negative projections about the future. The goal of The Manifesto, and of the whole book that contextualises, is therefore that of contributing to the update of our philosophy. It is a constructive goal. The book is meant to be a positive contribution to rethinking the philosophy on which policies are built in a hyperconnected world, so that we may have a better chance of understanding our ICT-related problems and solving them satisfactorily.

The Manifesto launches an open debate on the impacts of ICTs on public spaces, politics and societal expectations toward policymaking in the Digital Agenda for Europe’s remit. More broadly, it helps start a reflection on the way in which a hyperconnected world calls for rethinking the referential frameworks on which policies are built.

This paper summarizes the results of 21 studies on the ethics of tax evasion. These studies were published in the 1998 edition of a book, The Ethics of Tax Evasion. This book was only published in hard cover, and is now out of print. No electronic versions are available, unless they were uploaded to the internet independently. The paper also cites more than 100 additional studies that are on the same topics as the studies that were included in the book, and cites where summaries of more than 100 other tax evasion studies may be found.

BERDISOVÁ, L.: Právo a etika: reflexia etických modelov v etických kódexoch právnických profesií. In BÁRÁNY, E. a kol.: Zmeny v chápaní práva: Pluralita systémov, prameňov, perspektív... Bratislava: Slovak Academic Press, s. 137-152

Keď Niles Crane, brat seriálového psychiatra Frasiera, prechádza škaredý rozvodom, celý jeho majetok je v hre. Advokáti jeho manželky totiž argumentujú, že kľúčovú úlohu na rozpade manželstva má zaľúbenie sa Nilesa do Daphne, fyzioterapeutky jeho otca. Ak by sa to preukázalo, zodpovednosť za krach manželstva by bol pripísaná Nilesovi a spoločný majetok by bol pripadol manželke Marise. Všetci, vrátene Frasiera, vieme, že Niles je skutočne zaľúbený do Daphne. Tá to ale netuší. Zároveň, Marisu, hoci sme ju rovnako ako Columbovu ženu nikdy nevideli, nemáme radi, býva totiž k Nilesovi okrem iného takpovediac neláskavá a práve Marisino správanie k Nilesovi považujeme zo dôvod rozpadu manželstva. Nilesovi rozvod vlastne prajeme a držíme mu palce, aby sa o Daphne konečne uchádzal.
Pred súdom má pod prísahou vypovedať aj Frasier, ktorý isto dostane otázku na vzťah Nilesa a Daphne. Frasier je v ťažkej pozícií, má etickú dilemu...

Critical Ethics (as a unified account of normative and meta-ethics) uses critical thinking to get around the limitations of personal belief and indoctrination to get to what ought to be done and why to improve the human condition.  For, if we teach only moral beliefs (whether as a set of absolutistic or relativistic normative codes)—no matter how useful and even inspiring they may be to a particular culture or community—the adherent will have a hard time distinguishing, or simply may not be able to distinguish, good from bad as an act of personal responsibility and free choice.  Moreover, without critical thinking the adherent could possibly end-up believing all kinds of false or inconsistent things and moral beliefs may well end-up in conflict with better established background information. This would very likely lead to cognitive dissonance and inconsistency in a person’s actions; and, when generalized, would have devastating consequences for the survival of the human species because a person’s beliefs would not align or
match with (at times dangerous) reality. Accordingly, it is crucial that we learn how to evaluate and to select among alternatives to do the thing that must be done, when it ought to be done, using critical thinking.

Se indaga en la naturaleza e interrelaciones de la deontología profesional, la moral y los derechos humanos y se estudian las implicaciones de los derechos humanos para la práctica jurídica profesional, con especial atención al derecho a la tutela judicial.

This article addresses the confidentiality obligations of government lawyers. It examines the rather complex question of the identity of a government lawyer's client. On the specific issue of confidentiality, the article discusses how several legal doctrines impact the confidentiality duty: open government laws, statutes encouraging whistleblowing by government employees, and common law doctrines regarding the disclosure of government wrongdoing. These doctrines suggest that, as a substantive matter, government lawyers may disclose information that is subject to mandatory disclosure under freedom of information laws and information regarding government wrongdoing. But as a procedural matter, state supreme courts and governments need to establish procedures for government lawyers to follow in disclosing this information.

Legal Ethics is defined as usages and customs among members of the legal profession, involving their moral and professional duties toward one another, toward clients, and toward the courts. It is the branch of moral science which treats of the duties which a member of legal profession owes to the public, to the court, to his professional brethren, and to his client.  (Black, Black’s Law Dictionary, St. Paul Minn: West Publication Co., 1979, p.804)

A critical review of the decision in Hall v Simmons to remove advocates' immunity from suit. This review seeks to provide an analysis of the arguments made by counsel in the case, whilst looking at the effect the removal has had over the last 17 years. It pays special reference to the difference to civil and criminal jurisdictions, considers the abuse of process doctrine and analyses if the removal of the immunity has caused issues in relation to the ethics of the Bar, notably partisanship, neutrality and the cab-rank rule.

On the 17th of April 2014, by way of a Legal Notice No. 42, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) was able to adjust its membership rules concerning marketing and advertising. That was after His Justice in Okenyo Omwansa George & Another v Attorney General & 2 others [2012] eKLR pronounced that in so far as the Advocates (Practice) Rules (the Practice Rules) prohibit advertising in total, it is and will be in contravention to the Constitution of Kenya (the Constitution).

In the United States, highly competitive market outsourcing benefits are correlated to low consumer prices, growth in sales, and taking over market shares leaving competitors tailgating your organization. The high costs associated with adhering to the United States manufacturing regulations that include adherence to Clean Air Act that controls the pollution levels; Clean Water Act; Occupation Safety and Health Act; labor; and disposal regulations among others are leading reasons for the attraction of companies to outsource to global markets that have fewer regulations. Global outsourcing ventures in manufacturing sectors carry a perception of unethical conduct that involves long hour with low wages, physically abused, and poor working conditions, among consumers. The researchers’ objective was for an opportunity to acquire and understand millennials perspectives on the integration of individual moral values with ethics and millennials personal implications on sustainable development in Apple’s manufacture outsourcing. Consumer millennials decision to purchase Apple products contributes to Apple’s sustainability development; would the millennial’s access to the unethical practices in the manufacturing sway purchasing decisions. The face to face interviews gained insight if millennials considered individual morals and ethics in making purchasing decisions. The interviewed population for the research was millennials ages 18 to 34 who

Ethics and business: the main challenge. The key issues: sustainability, social responsibility and the ethical instruments. But what are the instruments of ethics? How do we recognize a form of behaviour as ethically correct? What is a social responsible organization? At the European Union level, what are the main directives and guidelines? What about at the international level?

Contemporary feminist theory by and large agrees on criticizing the traditional, autonomous subject and instead maintains a relational, dependent self, but the vocabulary used to describe the latter remains contested. These contestations are seen in comparing the approach of some feminist legal theory, as demonstrated by Martha Fineman, to the approach of some feminist theory that draws on continental philosophy, as demonstrated by Judith Butler. Fineman's concept of vulnerability emphasizes the universality of vulnerability in the human condition, arguing that a "responsive state" is most conducive to producing subjects who are "resilient" in the face of neoliberal pressures. We argue that vulnerability, as an existential as opposed to a political description, is a limited rubric under which to organize against neoliberal forces. Further, we contend that Fineman's rhetoric of resilience risks reiterating a neoliberal logic of individualized self-management. In response, we look to Butler's concept of precarity, which underscores particular social conditions, as opposed to universal ontological vulnerabilities, that debilitate certain subjects. At stake is how we respond to neoliberal forces today: a vocabulary of precarity poses a more effective challenge than one of vulnerability, for it opens onto not merely individual or institutional resilience but grounded, communal resistance.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2021.25

This is the text of the Plenary Address made by Justice Dr. Saleem Marsoof, President's Counsel, on 3rd December 2021 at the International Conference on Advancement in Sciences and Humanities organized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) on the theme “Research for the Betterment of Humanity”.  In the address, Justice Marsoof focused on positives and negatives of the rapid development of science and technology and in particular, the innovation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in the context of multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary legal research.  He also  paid attention to certain ethical and moral responsibilities vested on mankind to harness the benefits of these developments and research for the betterment of mankind. In the course of his address, Justice Marsoof also discussed the impact of modern scientific and technological developments on law and the legal profession.

Research on the ethics of algorithms has grown substantially over the past decade. Alongside the exponential development and application of machine learning algorithms, new ethical problems and solutions relating to their ubiquitous use in society have been proposed. This article builds on a review of the ethics of algorithms published in 2016 (Mittelstadt et al. Big Data Soc 3(2), 2016). The goals are to contribute to the debate on the identification and analysis of the ethical implications of algorithms, to provide an updated analysis of epistemic and normative concerns, and to offer actionable guidance for the governance of the design, development and deployment of algorithms.

Atticus Finch has two kinds of integrity, but only one of them is genuinely admirable. On one hand, he is rightly admired for standing up for the things he values. On the other hand, he is also praised for being “the same in his house as he is on the public streets.” But we shouldn’t praise him for this.

Atticus has achieved a kind of harmony between his identity as a lawyer and other identities like parent, neighbor, citizen, and moral person. This is a good thing for him, but it isn’t morally admirable. In fact, integrating one’s identities can sometimes make it harder to act virtuously. For example, the way that Atticus organizes his identities around his commitment to the justice system prevents him from noticing his only chance to save Tom Robinson’s life.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" shows that it is sometimes better to have tension in our identities. Far from presenting Atticus as the sole paradigm of ethical goodness, it shows other characters who are admirable because they are not like Atticus at all. The identities of characters like Calpurnia, Maudie, and Scout others are conflicted or divided, and these tensions allow them to be admirable in ways that Atticus is not. They can cross social boundaries, subvert their own social roles, and radically criticize their community precisely because their identities are fragmented or in flux. This should be inspiring to lawyers, and to the legal ethicists who have long worried that lawyers’ roles will cause schisms in their identities. Sometimes tension in the self is exactly what we need to be good.