Ethics and Law: An Introduction

Description

Can someone be a good person yet act in a professional role that may involve deception, procedural trickery, withholding information, and working on behalf of terrible people and institutions? This question is at the heart of legal ethics. Using cases from around the common-law world, W. Bradley Wendel looks at issues including confidentiality, the moral responsibility of lawyers, and truth and deception in advocacy. He then examines the classic questions of philosophy of law, including the nature of law, positivism, natural law, the relationship between law and morality, unjust legal systems, and the obligation to obey the law. Finally, he considers the ethical issues surrounding the role of lawyers, including criminal defense and prosecution, civil litigation, counseling clients on the law, and representing corporations. Combining the theoretical, philosophical, and practical, his book will be of vital interest to students of law, the philosophy of law, ethics, and political philosophy.

W. Bradley Wendel is Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. He is the author of Lawyers and Fidelity to Law (2010) and Professional Responsibility: Examples and Explanations, 4th edition (2013), and co-editor of The Law and Ethics of Lawyering, 5th edition (with Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr et al., 2010).

'A superb, engaging and accessible introduction to the intersection of ethics and law.' Adam Dodek, University of Ottawa