From the great variety of modern varieties of professional ethics, it is necessary to single out the legal one. This category is closely related to the peculiarities of legal activity, in the course of which human destinies are often decided. What is legal ethics? Is its significance increasing or fading today? Why? These and other equally important questions can be answered in the process of reading the materials of this article.
Legal ethics: concept
Legal ethics is a special category, because the corresponding activity is promoted by specialists of various legal professions. Among them are prosecutors, lawyers, investigators, judges, law enforcement officers, state security officers, legal advisers, customs officers, notaries, tax police officers and so on.
It is important to note that for each of the professions presented today there are their own codes inregarding professional ethics, which are recorded in various regulations and documents. Thus, the legal ethics of a lawyer, judge, prosecutor and many other categories stand out. It should be noted that the current codes include the following items:
- Judge's code of honor.
- Code of honor of a judge in relation to the Constitutional Court.
- Professional ethics rules for a lawyer.
- Code of legal ethics in terms of the honor of employees of bodies and relevant departments of internal affairs.
- The oath of an employee of the prosecutor's office.
- Standards of the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes.
Thus, the professional legal ethics of a lawyer is impossible without the documents listed above. In addition, an important role is played by simple norms of morality, which are not fixed in the codes. One way or another, this should be remembered.
It would be appropriate to conclude that legal ethics is nothing more than a kind of professional ethics, which is an organized set of norms of behavior for employees of the legal field. The latter, one way or another, are fixed in the regulations, codes and oaths that regulate both official and off-duty behavior of employees in this area.
Content of legal ethics
As it turned out, the system of legal ethics, due to the specifics of the activities of employees of the legal field, contains judicial, prosecutorial, investigative,lawyer ethics, the ethics of employees of internal affairs bodies, as well as state security, including various structural divisions, legal services of enterprises, joint-stock companies and firms, as well as the ethics of teachers of legal educational institutions and legal scholars.
It is important to note that further integration and specialization of legal activity can lead to the formation of fundamentally new types of legal ethics. Already today, for example, there is a question about the ethics of a lawyer-programmer or a computer user.
Anyway, professional legal ethics is not limited to just judicial ethics. By the way, this position in history occupies a special place. Thus, the authors of the Judge's Handbook, which was published in 1972, presented judicial ethics as a broad, generic concept that covers the activities of not only judges, but also investigators, prosecutors, lawyers, persons conducting inquiries and other persons who promote justice” (page 33 of the Handbook of the Judge). The authors of this book proceeded primarily from the fundamental place of the judiciary in the general system of state law enforcement agencies. In addition, according to article ten of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the judiciary is nothing more than a special branch of state power.
Why was legal ethics equated with judicial ethics?
Why was the professional ethics of legal activity equated with judicial? The reason for this can also be seen in the fact that, in accordance with Article 118 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, justice inRussian Federation is carried out exclusively by the judiciary through constitutional, civil, administrative and criminal proceedings. Thus, all the activities of the subjects of relations of a professional legal nature, which precede the trial, work for the judiciary. In other words, it is carried out for the sake of doing justice in relation to a particular case.
So, all kinds of legal ethics were formed on the basis of judicial ethics. An established overall goal that, in one way or another, relates to the activities carried out by all law enforcement agencies; the similarity of the moral and professional requirements imposed on the subjects of this activity became the main factor that led to the emergence of such a consolidating term as judicial ethics. By the way, it is often defined as "the science of the moral roots of the judicial and other related activities."
which relate to the multifaceted and large-scale in terms of understanding legal activity. That is why all types of legal ethics are only sections of the professional ethics of legal professionals. It should be added that the provision also applies to judicial ethics.
Analysis of other sub-sectors of ethics
As noted, the ethics of legal activity, in addition to the judiciary, includes other sub-sectors. This includes the ethics of a legal adviser (business lawyer); and the ethics of a lawyer who is called upon to help a suspect, defendant, accused or victim in accordance with his qualifications (ethics of lawyers); and the ethics of a specialist lawyer who solves crimes and investigates criminal cases, and so on.
In the autumn of 1901, Anatoly Fedorovich Koni initiated the reading of the course in relation to criminal proceedings. The event was held at the Alexander Lyceum. In 1902, the Journal of the Department of Justice published his introductory lecture en titled "Moral principles in relation to the criminal process", with the phrase "Peculiarities of legal ethics" serving as a sub title. In the next chapter, it will be useful to discuss the moral rules that govern each of the currently known varieties of legal ethics.
Moral rules
Each type of legal ethics (for example, the legal ethics of a lawyer, lawyer, judge, prosecutor, and so on), along with moral principles of a general orientation, is also endowed with a specific set of moral rules. The latter, one way or another, are due to the characteristics of legal activity. Therefore, on legal grounds, one can speak in relation to scientific areas, in accordance with which the study is carried out not only of judicial, but also of investigative, lawyer ethics.etc. Moreover, legal ethics in this case is the basis on which the presented varieties are formed.
It would be appropriate to conclude that the enrichment of the content of each type is nothing more than a qualitative and quantitative improvement in knowledge regarding legal ethics in general. At the same time, it is necessary to never lose sight of the fact that the moral norms, professional and moral requirements that underlie the varieties and are imposed on the relevant subjects are fixed through legal norms and are translated into law enforcement activities, which, one way or another, relate to the issue under consideration.
That is why professional ethics in legal professions of any kind includes exclusively the norms of morality and relations that arise in the process of actual legal activity of a particular lawyer specialist, whether it be a judge, lawyer, prosecutor or representatives of other professions of this category. The provisions presented in the chapter, one way or another, make it necessary to study the requirements of a general nature, which, as a rule, apply to lawyers, regardless of their specialization.
Code of Legal Ethics
The code of professional ethics of a lawyer should be understood as a system of moral principles that underlie his activities and serve as a guideline in the worldview and methodological terms. It is important to note that it is impossible to provide a complete list of the moral principles of the specialist in question, because each person is individual, therefore eacha person can be a bearer of more or less of these moral principles in various combinations.
Nevertheless, today key moral principles stand out, without which a lawyer cannot take place in a state of law. It is they who constitute the content of the code in relation to the activities of a professional lawyer. It would be useful to consider the relevant points in more detail.
Rule of Law and Humanity
Such a norm of legal ethics as the rule of law means that a professional in the legal field is aware of his own mission of serving law and law, as well as observing the rule of law. So, a lawyer in a practical aspect cannot identify the definitions of law and law, however, he should not oppose these terms. It should be noted that, one way or another, he undertakes to refer to the following consideration: the law in any legal state is fair, legal and subject to strict enforcement. Moreover, even if a certain law, in accordance with the opinion of a specialist, does not quite share the ideas of the rule of law, he undertakes to guard the observance of all the provisions of this legal act. Such circumstances to some extent reflect the principle of the priority of the law, being bound by the law, which in any case cannot be refuted. Thus, it is professional lawyers who are called upon to fight nihilism, legal anarchy, and also to be guardians of the law and "servants" of law.
In addition to the rule of law, legal ethics containsnecessarily humane attitude towards all people. This principle is included in the code of professional ethics. It is important to note that he emphasizes the following point: high qualifications alone (namely, a diploma and subsequent attestation) will not be enough to become a professional legal worker. Therefore, it is important not to forget that his caring attitude towards absolutely every individual that a specialist encounters in the performance of his official duties is endowed with serious significance. It must be remembered that all people with whom, in accordance with the nature of their own activities, a lawyer communicates (this includes victims, witnesses, defendants, suspects, and so on), consider him not only as a performer of a specific professional role, but also as a person with certain characteristics of positive and negative directionality.
It is important to note that every individual who, due to certain circumstances, communicates with a judge, investigator, prosecutor or lawyer, expects from them both a professional (qualified) performance of duties and a respectful attitude towards himself and his problem. After all, the culture of a lawyer is judged precisely by his attitude towards absolutely every person individually. Thus, the respectful disposition of a professional towards a person with all its problems allows creating a special psychological atmosphere, as well as ensuring success in a legal case.
What is meant by respect for people? Humane attitude is nothing but an attitude where inpractical aspect (in connection with certain motives and actions), one way or another, the dignity of the individual is recognized. The concept of respect that has developed in the public mind implies the following categories: equality of rights, justice, trust in people, the maximum level of satisfaction of human interests, attentive attitude to people's beliefs and their problems, politeness, sensitivity, delicacy.
Practicing an idea
Unfortunately, in the practical aspect, the idea that a person, his dignity and honor is above all, has not fully captured lawyers today. By the way, this situation is especially typical for employees of modern law enforcement agencies.
Often, police officers, in the course of their activities, infringe on the rights of victims through ordinary inaction - refusal to initiate criminal cases and register crimes, despite sufficient grounds for this. It is important to remember that inexhaustible damage to such relations as “lawyer-client” is caused through the bureaucratic thinking of a certain number of “servants of the law”. The fact is that in the case of such thinking, there is no place for a person in the legal profession. By the way, for a bureaucrat, an individual is sometimes an excellent tool for solving issues that are significant for society. However, as a rule, a person for him is an obstacle in the way of solving such issues. Thus, a situation arises: for the sake of the public good, the interests and rights of a particular individual are infringed.
Bureaucratism is always anti-democratic, but inlaw enforcement agencies, it is much more dangerous, because in this case there are many opportunities to suppress a person as a person. In addition, with a strong desire, it is here that one can inconspicuously erase the boundary separating arbitrariness from justice. In order to avoid such circumstances, it is necessary to return law enforcement to its original purpose, which was to protect people and endow them with a reliable guarantor of justice.
Integrity
The next feature of such a category as legal ethics is integrity. It is one of the initial principles of a sufficiently high moral degree of the performance of professional operations. This principle is interpreted as an organic inability to act inhumanly. First of all, the use of the presented rule is noticeable in the methods and techniques used by a professional lawyer in his own activities.
It should be noted that in order to achieve absolutely any set goal, a legal figure chooses such techniques and methods that in no way conflict with legal and moral norms. The fact is that it is impossible to regulate all sorts of nuances that, one way or another, are connected with legal practice in a legislative way. That is why, in certain situations, the good name or even the fate of a person and his relatives depends on the decency of a judge, investigator or notary.
It is important to know that the integrity of a professional lawyer is built onfollowing qualities: empathy, trust, truthfulness, honesty. By the way, the presented characteristics should be manifested in absolutely all types of relationships: “lawyer-client”, “supervisor-subordinate”, “colleague-colleague” and so on.
Trust
Under trust should be understood the attitude of a person to the actions and actions of another person, as well as to himself. Trust is primarily based on the belief in the rightness of this person, honesty, conscientiousness, fidelity.
Today, leadership often sees in its subordinates only executors of its own will. They forget that, first of all, these are people with their characteristic positive and negative qualities, with their own worries and problems. In the presented situation, the subordinate does not feel needed, he cannot feel like a person to the fullest, especially when the authorities are often rude to him.
By the way, such an intolerable situation, one way or another, creates such conditions in the team, according to which rudeness and callousness are transferred to communication with colleagues and other people. It is important to say that in order to avoid this, management must constantly show concern for each member of the team. So, sometimes he is only required to take an interest in the family problems of a subordinate; find out his point of view on issues that, one way or another, relate to the organization of the workflow; give him an objective assessment as a specialist. Exceptionally in the case of such an approachthe subordinate sincerely realizes that the interests of the case are nothing but his own interests. It is then that the most successful result of joint professional activities in the legal field is achieved. This must always be remembered and, of course, guided by this principle in practice.
As you can see, professional ethics is very important not only for the specialist himself, but also for his business and close circle.
