Published: (2012) 25  Canadian Journal of Amin Law and Practice 131.

This article explores the idea and practice of adjudicative ethics in the context of administrative justice in Canada.  This analysis is divided into three parts.  The first part distinguishes adjudicative ethics from judicial ethics on the one hand and public service ethics on the other.  The section considers adjudicative ethics in practice, drawing on examples from the codes of conduct of particular adjudicative tribunals to legislation addressing conflicts of interests on a province-wide basis.  Adjudicative ethics is also situated within the broader context of accountability legislation.  Finally, the third section canvasses unsettled areas and the challenges ahead.  The article highlights the patchwork nature of adjudicative ethics in Canada, and contends that a more coherent and comprehensive approach is needed.

There is a new book on ethics and professionalism, L’AVOCAT DANS LA CITÉ : éthique et professionnalisme, published by les éditions Thémis and edited by Benoît Moore, Catherine Piché et Marie-claude Rigaud.  The publication is bilingual and includes chapters by members of CALE.  It will go to print in August and should be available this fall.

We are very pleased to let you know that Volume 15. Part 1 of Legal Ethics is now published.

Please see below for the table of contents, information about online access and details on how to subscribe. Continue reading →

Intuition and Theory in Legal Ethics Teaching

Alice Woolley, University of Calgar

University of St. Thomas Law Journal, Forthcoming

Abstract:

Ethical decision-making requires normatively grounded intuitions. Lawyers making ethical decisions must be able to perceive an ethical dilemma, to determine the appropriate response to the dilemma and to put that response into action. Doing so requires normative commitments to what being an ethical lawyer requires but also, and more importantly, it requires the ability to respond to ethical dilemmas intuitively, as a matter of sense and perception. Continue reading →

Annalise Acorn’s case comment on the Supreme Court’s decision in R v Cunningham on the lawyer’s right to withdraw came out recently.  From the introduction:

1  It has never been in the best traditions of the criminal bar to quit a client over money. Having gone on the record as counsel for an accused, the lawyer is, as a matter of professional dignity, expected to have sorted out financial matters with the client in advance, and it is seen as unseemly for the lawyer to abandon the client over non-payment. Some Canadian codes of conduct clearly prohibit the criminal defence lawyer from withdrawing due to non-payment of fees where withdrawal would potentially prejudice the client.¹ Other codes make it clear that such withdrawal is frowned upon.^{2 Continue reading →}

Joshua Wilner has written an article on ethics and judicial clerkship titled “To Be or Not to Be?:  Some Legal Ethics for Judicial Law Clerks”.  It is available for free to members of the Canadian Bar Association if you go to their website HERE.