Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2017
Keywords
Professional ethics, Moral agency, Role morality
Disciplines
Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
Abstract
The modern subject of theoretical legal ethics began in the 1970s. This brief history distinguishes two waves of theoretical writing on legal ethics. The "First Wave" connects the subject to moral philosophy and focuses on conflicts between ordinary morality and lawyers' role morality, while the "Second Wave" focuses instead on the role legal representation plays in maintaining and fostering a pluralist democracy. We trace the emergence of the First Wave to the larger social movements of the 1960s and 1970s; in the Conclusion, we speculate about possible directions for a Third Wave of theoretical legal ethics, based in behavioral ethics, virtue ethics, or fiduciary theory.
Recommended Citation
Luban, David and Wendel, W. Bradley, "Philosophical Legal Ethics: An Affectionate History," 30 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 337 (2017)
