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5 Legal Ethics 1 (2002)

handle is hein.journals/lethics5 and id is 1 raw text is: Legal Ethics, Volume 5, Nos.l & 2 Editorial KIM ECONOMIDES AND JULIAN WEBB Understanding Ethical Legal Behaviour This double issue of the journal continues to examine the influence that education exerts over later legal practice and to promote a moral rather than mere descriptive understanding of eth- ical legal behaviour. We also continue to draw on antipodean research exploring new approaches to professional values. Yet while empirical description of legal work offers many valuable insights the risk is that we overlook important philosophical perspectives on the intellectual and professional discipline of law. We urgently need to construct a more credi- ble normative legal science capable of steering rather than acting as a brake on the driving force behind legal action and in order to create such guiding theory we need convincing explanations of what motivates lawyers and determines legal action. There has been precious little in-depth research into the determinants of legal conduct by comparison to the socio- logical and professional literature explicating the regulatory framework which seeks to con- trol and contain, rather than inspire and guide, that behaviour. With this issue we hope to make a start in re-orienting research toward deeper sociological and philosophical explana- tions of ethical legal behaviour. The contributors to this volume each drill down to underlying concerns that shape and define the nature of professional work within legal contexts and in so doing raise new topics of concern to both educators and regulators. The practical problems facing those who advo- cate the need for a more ethical legal professionalism are substantial. Deborah Rhode's book, In the Interests of Juslice: Ref brining the Legal Proftssion1 (reviewed in this issue by Barry Sullivan), recognises that any serious attempt at reform must address access to legal services, the public accountability and discipline of lawyers, the scope of professional ethical stan- dards, and both lawyers' individual moral responsibilities and their sense of dissatisfaction with life in the law. Aspects of each of these themes are addressed in this issue. The discipli- nary terrain is explored by Linda Haller. Her article adds to the empirical data available on the discipline of lawyers,2 by examining the use of fines in controlling and promoting ethical legal behaviour in Australia. Based on her historical study of the disciplinary regime in 1 New York, Oxford University Press, 2000. 2 Scc, c.g., S Arthurs, Discipline in the Lcgal Profcssion in Ontario (1970) 7 Osgoode Hall LawJournal235; J Brockman & C \IcENen, Self Regulation in the Legal Profession: Funnel In, Funnel Out or Funnel Awa)? (1990) 5 Canadian Journal of/Law & Socie' 1; B Arnold & J lagan, Self Regulatory Rcsponscs to Prof-cssional Misconduct in the Legal Profession (1994) 31 Canadian Review o/'Sociology and Anthropology 168. For an histori cal analysis of thc US system, scc MU Dcvlin, The Dcvclopmcnt ofIawycr Disciplinary Procccdings in thc United States (1994) 7 GeorgetownJournnal of LegalEthics 921.