17 September 2010

words ...

i sent this to one of my professors. he talked about it in class. not many people seemed to think it was worth talking about ...

The first few weeks of law school are ethically and morally alarming. In a place where people are attempting to learn how to be the administrators of justice, there is a callousness to the concept of justice that is, quite frankly, offensive. Instead of an education in whether the law is right or wrong, or just or unjust, law school has encouraged us to get away with what we can on behalf of our client as long as the law allows for it. This kind of moral bankruptcy and questionable ethical practice disguised with the word “professionalism” is alarming because lawyers, with their privileged position of service within society should be at least minimally engaged with the questions: what is just and should I pursue this argument simply because the law allows for it and it will make myself and my client money? This is not meant as a kind of higher calling to justice, per se, but a promotion of the thought that striving to do what is just, while seemingly a longer and harder road than evaluating everything through a practicality lens, is actually more practical in the end. That is because justice solves problems, while doing what is allowable under the law for immediate benefit prolongs problems. This is alarming to me, because I thought that lawyers were supposed to be problem solvers, not obfuscators.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Perhaps the reason why lawyers are lawyers and "philosophers are legislators," in Nietzsche's words.