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TEACHING LEGAL PROFESSIONALISM Keele, 29 November 2007

TEACHING LEGAL PROFESSIONALISM Keele, 29 November 2007. Professor Julian Webb UK Centre for Legal Education & University of Warwick. The ‘Law on Lawyering’. Provides minimum standards and some guidance Focuses on rule application (a substitute for ethical decision-making)

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TEACHING LEGAL PROFESSIONALISM Keele, 29 November 2007

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  1. TEACHING LEGAL PROFESSIONALISMKeele, 29 November 2007 Professor Julian Webb UK Centre for Legal Education & University of Warwick

  2. The ‘Law on Lawyering’ • Provides minimum standards and some guidance • Focuses on rule application (a substitute for ethical decision-making) • Involves transmission of decontextualised knowledge • May produce cynicism, and a culture of creative compliance

  3. Why PROFESSIONALISM?

  4. Lawyer professionalism…. “The term refers to a group pursuing a learned art as a common calling in the spirit of public service” - Roscoe Pound (1953)

  5. “ Professionalism as a personal characteristic is revealed in an attitude and approach to an occupation that is commonly characterised by intelligence, integrity, maturity and thoughtfulness” - Chief Justice of Ontario’s Advisory Committee on Professionalism (2002)

  6. “Professionalism is a wide umbrella of values encompassing competence, civility, legal ethics, integrity, commitment to the rule of law, to justice and to the public good” - Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism (n.d.)

  7. “No amount of external regulation of professional practice will serve as an adequate substitute for the personal and professional values and standards that lawyers should internalise from the earliest stages of their education and training… Students must be made aware of the values that legal solutions carry, and of the ethical and humanitarian dimensions of law as an instrument which affects the quality of life” - Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (1996)

  8. Ethics or values?

  9. Professionalism as ‘value(s)’ • Professionalism = a compound set of values • Values as ‘structural guides’ for experience • Having cognitive and affective (social-emotional) dimensions • Pluralistic • Wider than ethics?

  10. Values in education “[Education] is for values – it has to be. As soon as we delete values, we delete education. No values, no education; and where there is real education, there are genuine human values” - L. Ward, ‘Education and Values’ in Strain (ed) Modern Philosophies of Education (1971)

  11. The knowledge-action gap

  12. ‘Character’ and values • The ‘construction of self’ is a process - a shaping of personal-professional identity that evolves and matures – particularly through exposure to conflicting values and beliefs • For a value to have “personal force” it must relate to our “characteristic behaviours” (Silcock & Duncan, 2001)

  13. The ‘situationist’ challenge • ‘Indeterminate’ or ‘fragmented’ nature of character (Harman, 1999; Vranas, 2005) • But belief in character is strong and this should not be discounted (Nisbet & Ross, 1991; Vranas 2005)

  14. Create opportunities for individuals’ to build voluntary commitments to professional values

  15. Create space to construct and debate the content of ‘key’ values

  16. A values education needs to be ‘contextually real’

  17. First steps • Develop understanding of the values, history, functions and institutions of the profession • Develop a critical appreciation of the roles and responsibilities of the individual lawyer • Encourage reflection on the individual’s ‘value priorities’ (in academic and professional settings) • Provide opportunities to act ‘professionally’ in real world settings

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