Description
Book SynopsisProposes a renovation of legal ethics, one that contributes to ethical thought generally. This title reinterprets the positive law governing lawyers to identify fidelity as its organizing ideal. It asks what it is like - not psychologically but ethically - to practice law subject to the self-effacement that fidelity demands.
Trade Review"[An] ambitious, original, and theoretically elegant book."--David Luban, Ethics "A Modern Legal Ethics is an intellectual whirlwind, sweeping from Aristotle and Kant to contemporary debates about impartial moral theory to the details of the Model Rules... What is most engaging is the question that drives Markovits throughout: is it possible for an adversary advocate today to have integrity?"--Benjamin C. Zipursky, Yale Law Journal "Markovits has given us in A Modern Legal Ethics a profound, provocative, and closely argued philosophical treatment of his subject."--Robert E. Rodes, Jr., American Journal of Jurisprudence "In a refreshing break from the positivist battle over the moral function of lawyers in an adversary system of adjudication, A Modern Legal Ethics investigates whether it is even possible for lawyers to occupy an ethical role in modern society... This unique perspective on the legal profession is informed by a combination of legal literature and political philosophy that is sure to capture the attention of academics and practicing lawyers alike."--Harvard Law Review "What makes lawyers unhappy is books like this one."--Monroe H. Freedman and Abbe Smith, Michigan Law Review "Markovits' work is an intelligent and thorough investigation of the possibility for lawyers to escape the criticism that they are often serving injustice rather than justice."--Norbert Campagna, Ethical Perspectives "In this complex and thought-provoking work, Markovits makes an original and substantial contribution to the field of professional legal ethics."--Tim Murphy, International Journal of Law in Context
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Part I Adversary Advocacy Chapter 1: The Wellsprings of Legal Ethics 25 Chapter 2: The Lawyerly Vices 44 Chapter 3: The Seeds of a Lawyerly Virtue 79 Part II Integrity Chapter 4: Introducing Integrity 103 Chapter 5: An Impartialist Rejoinder? 118 Chapter 6: Integrity and the First Person 134 Part III Comedy or Tragedy? Chapter 7: Integration through Role 155 Chapter 8: Lawyerly Fidelity and Political Legitimacy 171 Chapter 9: Tragic Villains 212 Postscript 247 Notes 255 Index of Cases Cited 341 Index of Model Rules and Other Authorities 347 Index of Subjects 351
