NCJ Number
142206
Journal
Journal of Legal Education Volume: 42 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1992) Pages: 31-56
Date Published
1992
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This article proposes that legal ethics should be taught in law schools both through separate courses and integrated coverage in all classes.
Abstract
Currently, legal ethics receives little attention from law school faculty. Some educators assume that ethical behavior will be implied pervasively throughout the curriculum, but this view is difficult to reconcile with available evidence. Other educators conclude that it is unreasonable to expect that postgraduate courses in ethics will offset childhood socialization, situational pressures, and practice norms. This article sets this debate in a broader perspective by drawing on historical, theoretical, cross-professional, and empirical research. Its central premise is that "ethics by the pervasive method" is an aspiration that has been too quickly abandoned. This method presents ethical instruction both in separate courses on ethics and in the context of the material taught in core courses. The author proposes a required introduction to professional responsibility issues in the first year. This might be part of civil procedure, a required orientation program, or a short separate course. Coverage would include ethical codes, regulatory structures, and the concept of professional roles. Major traditions of moral reasoning and contemporary critiques should also be included. The curriculum would also contain an upper-level course on legal ethics and the integration of ethical principles in other core courses and in special supplemental events such as panels and lectures. 112 footnotes