Lawyers' Ethics and the Pursuit of Social Justice (05 Edition)

While there have long been libertarians, agrarians, individualists, collectivists, nationalists, and others who fit the contemporary label of “conservative,” no cohesive conservative movement existed prior to World War II. How, then, did conservatism develop into such a powerful American political force?

Tracing the history of conservatism from the concerns and ideas of the Old Right, through the Cold War, the “Gingrich revolution,” and into the present, Conservatism in America Since 1930 gathers a wide range of conservative writings and documents showcasing the development and protean character of the modern conservative intellectual and political movement.

The book includes essays from Russell Kirk, Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek, William F. Buckley, Jr., Ronald Reagan, and Pat Buchanan, among others, and highlights key debates between the movements factions. Along with essays by these canonical conservative figures, the volume also contains excerpts from sources less frequently cited, such as the Twelve Southerners and Seward Collins, as well as documents from conservative organizations and journals. The primary documents are supplemented by introductions which set the historical context and offer illuminating commentary on how conservatism shifted identity over the course of modern American history.

Articles generally from journals during the 1990s offer students of law and of legal ethics a range of views about the ethics of being a lawyer, suggesting that lawyers have higher goals than just representing the interests of their clients. They look first at theory and the history of legal ethics in the US since before the Civil War, then survey a number of contemporary critical approaches.
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Legal ethics should be far more than a set of rules on professional responsibility; they can serve as a means for changing power relations, empowering the disenfranchised, and advocating progressive social change. Lawyers Ethics and the Pursuit of Social Justice broadens the discussion on legal ethics by first introducing the historical and theoretical background and then connecting it to real world issues while addressing lawyers' ethical obligations to work for social justice.

The reader features differing critical approaches and opens up new avenues of ethical debate. While the literature included is diverse and interdisciplinary, it shares a vision of legal ethical inquiry as a means for changing power relations, empowering the disenfranchised, and advocating progressive social change. Through a combination of provocative selections, lively writing, concrete examples of cases and social movements, and incisive editorial commentary, Lawyers Ethics and the Pursuit of Social Justice defines the emergence of an exciting new field of critical legal ethics scholarship.

Susan D. Carle is professor of law at Washington College of Law, American University in Washington, D.C.