Law, Lawyering and Legal Education ─ Building an Ethical Profession in a Globalizing World

This book provides a sustained investigation of the ethical and theoretical aspects of legal practice and education. It synthesizes and develops twenty years of Professor Sampford’s critical thought and analysis. The book features two major areas of investigation. First, it explains the significance for lawyers and law students of legal theory and the capacity for reflection on the nature and profession of law. Second, the book explores the ethical issues and challenges to lawyers in a wide range of applications. A core theme of the book is the mutually enriching relationship between these two rubrics. Reflecting on the nature of law and lawyering requires taking seriously the relationship between law and ethics, while answering difficult questions about the moral duties of lawyers requires reflection on the public justification of law as a profession and the purpose of law in society. Another core theme is the increasing globalization of Law, Lawyering and Legal Education over the last thirty years. Law was once a highly cosmopolitan profession that was largely domesticated by the Westphalian state but is globalizing as the walls between sovereign states are lowered. This is likely to change law, lawyering and legal education as much over the next 30 years as it has over the last 300 – when the students entering law schools today reach the peak of their profession. Sampford concludes by arguing that the challenge faced by law, lawyers and legal education is to make the same critical contribution to civilizing of the emerging global order as they made to the process of civilizing the originally despotic Westphalian state.

The book will be of key interest to legal practitioners and all students and teachers of law. It will be required reading for researchers exploring lawyering, legal practice and legal institutions. The book also has substantial cross-disciplinary appeal, with the three sections dealing in detail with issues germane to education theory, international relations, political science and government, professional ethics, sociology, public policy, governance studies, ethics and philosophy.

Charles Sampford has written 117 articles and chapters and has completed twenty seven books and edited collections including work on jurisprudence, public law, legal education, applied ethics, corruption, corporate governance, professional governance, public sector governance, global values and institutions, environmental governance and tax policy.

Hugh Breakley’s award-winning PhD work in political philosophy at the University of Queensland demonstrated the important ways natural rights limit the scope and strength of intellectual property. This research culminated in 2012 with the publication of his first book, Intellectual Liberty: Natural Rights and Intellectual Property, by Ashgate. His current research focuses on philosophical issues in international relations, international law and the protection of civilians, as well as continuing research on the nature of rights, especially security, intellectual and property rights, and other topics in applied ethics. Since 2009, Hugh has published in top law, philosophy, ethics and international policy journals, includingThe Modern Law Review, The Philosophical Quarterly, Social Theory and Practice andGlobal Responsibility to Protect as well as high impact outlets such as international newspapers and theInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Most recently he co-authored, with an international research team, theR2P POC Policy Guide. The Guide’s Dr Hugh Breakey is a Postdoctoral Fellow at theInstitute for Ethics, Governance and Law and the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governanceat Griffith University, Australia. He is vice-president of the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics. Launch in November 2012 was hosted by the NZ Mission in New York, with an audience of Permanent Representatives and Ambassadors from twenty United Nations member state delegations.