Modern Virtue Ethics in Legal Practice

Objectives

LO1: Knowledge of (b) broader contexts within which legal issues arise, namely social, historical, philosophical and economic contexts in which legal issues arise; (c) the principles and values of ethical practice in lawyers’ roles; and (d) natural law (including virtue ethics).

LO2: Ethics and professional responsibility

1. An ability to recognise and reflect upon the professional responsibilities of lawyers in promoting justice and in service to the community
2. Awareness of the social and economic consequences of law and lawyers’ work, together with the attendant professional obligation to practise in ways which are respectful to the interests of clients, communities, economies and the environment  

LO3: Thinking skills

1. Identify and articulate philosophical explanations and critiques of legal practice
2. Comprehend philosophical materials relating to legal practice
3. Apply philosophical reasoning and research to generate appropriate responses to issues of legal practice
4. Engage in critical analysis and make a reasoned choice amongst philosophical and moral alternatives with virtue ethics

Reflection

From the Selected Reading from After Virtue –

1. What does Macintyre mean by a ‘practice’?  Can you think of specific examples?

2. What does Macintyre mean by a ‘virtue’?  Can you think of specific examples?

3. Take Fuller’s ‘eight routes to fail to make law’, and the eight virtues that correct them (module 6).  In what ways do these eight virtues direct the professional ethics of lawmakers and law-appliers?

Prepare answers to all four questions

1. Does Luban see any problems with the way that Fuller’s eight virtues direct professional ethics?
2. In describing the lawyer of character as ‘the lawyer-statesman’, does Kronman suggest that the good lawyer must necessarily be involved in politics? If not, what is the connection between law and politics that, according to Kronman, makes the description ‘lawyer-statesman’ an appropriate one?
3. According to Kronman, what is the virtue that is central to being a good lawyer?  Why?  How is that needed, or developed, in legal practice?
4. What are Mortensen’s concerns about ‘the ethics of care’?  About the ‘lawyer as friend?’