A RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

ON

LEGAL ETHICS

SUBMITTED TO:

(Mr. VISHAL BERA)

(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR)

(FACULTY OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS)

SUBMITTED BY

JAYA VATS

ROLL NO.-

18FLICDDN01049

BATCH (2018-2023)

DATE OF SUBMISSION- 06/04/2021

ICFAI LAW SCHOOL

ICFAI UNIVERSITY

DEHRADUN

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 DECLARATION

I, Jaya Vats, student of BBALLB(HONS.), hereby declare that the project work entitled
“LEGAL ETHICS” submitted to the ICFAI Law School, ICFAI University, Dehradun is a
record of an original work done by me under the guidance of Mr. Vishal Bera, teacher in
subject, ICFAI Law School, ICFAI University, Dehradun.

Date: 06/04/2021 Name: JAYA VATS

Roll No. 18FLICDDN01049

Batch. 2018-2023

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project report entitled “LEGAL ETHICS” submitted by jaya vats in
partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of degree of “Batch” to ICFAI Law
School, ICFAI University, Dehradun is a record of the candidate’s own work carried out by
him under my supervision. The matter embodied in this project is original and has not been
submitted for the award of any other degree.

DATE: (Mr. Vishal Bera)

Teacher in subject

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would specially like to thank my guide, mentor, Mr. Vishal Bera without whose constant support
and guidance this project would have been a distant reality.

This work is an outcome of an unparalleled infrastructural support that I have received from ICFAI
Law School, ICFAI University, Dehradun.
I owe my deepest gratitude to the library staff of the college.

It would never have been possible to complete this study without an untiring support from my
family, specially my parents.

This study bears testimony to the active encouragement and guidance of a host of friends and well-
wishers.

Name: Jaya vats

Roll no 18FLICDDN01049

Batch 2018-2023

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5
 TABLE OF CONTENT

Chapter – I: Introduction……………………………………

1.1 Abstract…………………………………………

1.2 Objectives of Study………………………………………….

1.3 Research Methodology ……………………………………….

1.4 Significance of Study………………………………………..

1.5 Limitations of Study…………………………………………

1.6 Review of the Literature……………

Chapter – II : Law and Ethics……………………………..

2.1 General idea of law………………………………………..

2.2 Introduction to Ethics………………………………………

2.3 Relation between Law and Ethics………………………....

Chapter – III : Legal Ethics and Legal Professionalism...........

3.1 Meaning of Legal Ethics and Professionalism………………

3.2 Professional ethics of lawyers……………………………….

3.3 Violation of Code of conduct and its punishments………….

3.4 Professional ethics of judges……………………

Chapter- IV: Analysis

Chapter –V: Conclusion and Suggestions……………….

6.1 Some suggestions…………………………………………..

6.2 Conclusion to the paper…………………………………….

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 1.INTRODUCTION

1.1 Abstract

If we ask a lawyer what “professionalism” means and we are likely to hear that

professionalism means “putting our client first or acting as an officer of the court.” Only

rarely will a lawyer say that professionalism means “putting justice first.” Never, I think

will a lawyer even suggest that professionalism means putting your profession first. My

entire paper is basically limited to this scenario what all ought to be as Legal

Professionalism with addressing the idea of ethics in it.

It is very difficult to leave a picture or create a picture in the minds of scholars or

professional about the professional ethics. The values and the standards associated with

the professional ethics pass the message of ethical accountability and responsibility. It is

not merely a guideline for the professional and the expected behaviour associated with the

profession but it is moral values and inner standards which everyone ought to be followed

in respect of field. Professional ethics are standards or codes of conduct set by people for

the people in relation of a specific profession. Democracy has good platform for the

development of the professional ethics with the full realization without any intervention.

A code of ethics is an idea and also parts of the expectations of those involved in many

different types of professions and have tag of professional. No one in the profession want

to condone bad, dishonest or irresponsible behavior in relation of the professional ethics

but if it does occur by someone in their field the perpetrator have to bear the

responsibility and also liability.

By setting out expected behaviours in the form of professional ethics, professionals work
together to try to uphold a good reputation. Professional ethics are commonly known
asethical business practices. Respect and honesty are the two main components of
professional ethics. All professionals are expected to represent a respective profession
ethically as they are a part of it.

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1.2 Objectives of Study

The very ground reasons of the research is already discussed in the preface and the

introductive chapter previously. Based on such grounds this study carries the following

objectives.

1) To analyze the idea of ethics in respect to the legal professionalism;

2) To analyze the present condition of the implementation of the legal ethics;

3) To Analyze the Indian law of professional ethics of the lawyers and judges.

1.3 Methodology of Study

This study has adopted basically the doctrinal method of the research. The secondary data

has been applied and incorporated from the library, books, articles and some other

previous researches. Those principles, ideas and data are analyzed on the legal ground

with reference to the Nepalese scenario. The researcher has given his analysis on the

separate chapter nevertheless also has dealt in the subsequent topics.

1.4 Significance of Study

This research paper has great significance within its coverage and subject matters. The

present scenario of the legal ethics and professionalism is analyzed. It will be very

helpful for not only the upcoming law students but also become a reference for the

lawyers, judges, and other law practitioners to improve the implementation of the

professional legal ethics.

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1.5 Limitations of Study

A single research paper may not cover all the necessary subjects in whole. This paper is

basically limited to the introduction of the law and ethics, legal profession and legal

ethics. It covers some international and national legal instruments to analyze the

problems. Besides that some national history is briefly introduced and analysis has been

done to find out the differences and progress. In other hand, this study only covers the

professional ethics and its law of the lawyers and judges of the India.

1.6 Review of the Literature

Since this is one of the emerging issue and having great role in the administration of the

justice, there are very few researches in this area. Although there are some researches

being done by the law students but are not published. Despite that, we can find lots of

papers done by the international/foreign researchers.

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Chapter – II: Law and Ethics

2.1 General idea of law

The law is not strictly defined in this paper but it is tried to give a basic concept of the

law in respect to its nature. This is to distinguish the law with the ethics in the following

Chapters. Law is some set of rules which are formulated and created by the state for the

regulation of the behaviors of its citizens.

The law is the systematic set of universally accepted rules and regulation created by

appropriate authority, i.e. government, which may be regional, national and

international.

The law is described as the set of rules and regulation, created by the government in order

to govern the whole society. The law is universally accepted, recognized and enforced. It

is created with the purpose of maintaining social order, peace, justice in the society and to

provide protection to the general public and safeguard their interest. It is made after

considering ethical principles and moral values.

Law is made by the judicial system of the country. Every person in the country is bound

to follow the law. It clearly defines what a person must or must not do. So, in case of the

breach of law may result in the punishment or penalty or sometimes both.

2.2 Introduction to Ethics

Ever since we were kids and became aware of our surroundings, our parents and elders

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have instilled in us a fundamental awareness of what is right and wrong. It is actually an

inherent trait of all humans and grows from our desire to get along well with each other

in order to live a harmonious life. To achieve this goal we understand that we must do to

other people what we expect them to do to us in return. For this, we try very hard to do

what we feel and see as the right things to do in certain situations. This is the foundation

of ethics. They are rules of conduct that shows how our society expects us to behave and

are the guiding principles behind the creation of laws.

By ethics, we mean that the branch of moral philosophy that guides people about what is

good or bad. It is a collection of fundamental concepts and principles of an ideal human

character. The principles help us in making decisions regarding, what is right or wrong. It

informs us about how to act in a particular situation and make judgments to make better

choices for ourselves. Ethics are the code of conduct agreed and adopted by the people. It

sets a standard of how a person should live and interact with other people.

The principle is that ethical questions are to be resolved in terms of legal doctrine and

that they should be resolved by lawyers collectively in their occupational capacities and

not by lawyers individually in terms of personal or social norms or by broad based

political institutions.

2.3 Relation between Law and Ethics

It is already dealt that what basically the law and ethics are. These two concepts are

different but has very interconnection. Without ethical substance law has no enforcing

power itself and without law ethical standards will have no clear boundary, which will be

seen as blur in society.

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Ethics is such moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. Sometime

these synonyms are given to understand the ethics although they can also be

differentiated in other grounds. Such terms are: moral code, morals, morality, values, rights
and wrongs principles, ideals, standards (of behavior), value system, virtues, dictates of
conscience. Etc.

Based on society’s ethics, laws are created and enforced by governments to mediate in

our relationships with each other. Laws are made by governments in order to protect its

citizens. The judiciary, legislature, and public officials are the three main bodies in a

government that are assigned to the task of the creation of laws. Laws have to be

approved and written by these three branches of government before they are implemented

and enforced by the police and the military, with the help of the legal system consisting

of lawyers and other government servants. While laws carry with them a punishment for

violations, ethics does not. In ethics everything depends on the person’s conscience and

self worth. Â Driving carefully and within the speed limit because you don’t want to hurt

someone is ethical, but if you drive slowly because you see a police car behind you, this

suggests your fear of breaking the law and being punished for it.

Ethics comes from within a person’s moral sense and desire to preserve his self respect.

It is not as strict as laws. Laws are codifications of certain ethical values meant to help

regulate society, and punishments for breaking them can be harsh and sometimes even

break ethical standards.

The major differences between law and ethics are mentioned below:

1. The law is defined as the systematic body of rules that governs the whole society

and the actions of its individual members. Ethics means the science of a standard

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human conduct.

2. The law consists of a set of rules and regulations, whereas Ethics comprises of

guidelines and principles that inform people about how to live or how to behave

in a particular situation.

3. The law is created by the Government, which may be local, regional, national or

international. On the other hand ethics are governed by individual, legal or

professional norms, i.e. workplace ethics, environmental ethics and so on.

4. The law is expressed under the constitution in a written form. As opposed to

ethics, it cannot be found in writing form.

5. The breach of law may result in punishment or penalty, or both which is not in the

case of breach of ethics.

Law and ethics are different in a manner that what a person must do and what a person

should do. The former is universally accepted while the latter is ideal human conduct,

agreed upon by most of the people. Although, both the law and ethics are made in

alignment so that they do not contradict each other. Both go side by side, as they provide

how to act in a particular manner. Every person is equal in the eyes of law and ethics, i.e.

nobody is superior or inferior. Further, these two allows a person to freely think and

choose.

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 Chapter – III: Legal Ethics and Legal Professionalism

In terms of Law, Professional ethics may be defined as a code of conduct written or

unwritten for regulating the behaviour of a practicing lawyer towards himself/herself,

his/her client, his/her adversary in law and towards the court.

The main object of ethics of the legal profession is to maintain the dignity of the legal

profession and the friendly relation between bar and bench. Chief Justice Marshall has

observed “The fundamental aim of legal ethics is to maintain the honour and dignity of the
law

profession, to secure a spirit of friendly cooperation between the bar and bench in the

promotion of high standards of justice, to establish honourable and fair dealings of the

council with his/her client, opponent and witnesses, to establish a spirit of brotherhood in

the bar itself and to secure that lawyers discharge their responsibilities to the community

generally.”

This principle states that ethical questions are to be resolved in terms of legal doctrine

and that they should be resolved by lawyers collectively in their occupational capacities

and not by lawyers individually in terms of personal or social norms or by board based

political institutions.

To understand the term legal ethics and professionalism, the explanation of those terms

felt necessary here. Lawyer and judges are the sole actors of every state to establish the

rule of law. Justice can only be imagined where the legal system and practice is best.

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Unless and otherwise a legal system is stronger no people can enjoy their life liberty and

property in a country. In this ground the ethics to guide those professional is called the

professional ethics.

3.1 Meaning of Legal Ethics and Professionalism

In modern democratic societies based on the rule of law, lawyers play a paramount role in

the administration of justice and in safeguarding human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In fulfilling their functions, lawyers operate concurrently as representatives of their

clients, officers of the legal system, and public citizens having special responsibilities for

the quality of justice. Virtually all ethical problems faced by lawyers arise from potential

conflicts between these three responsibilities. Maintaining and observing clear ethical

standards is a duty that lawyers owe not only to their clients, but also to the

administration of justice, their profession and the society at large.

When the terms Law, Ethics and their relation are already described above, Now we can

easily understand the term legal ethics. This is just by separating from the ethics of the

other discipline. The ethics applied in the law and concerned with the legal professionals

are legal ethics. Legal professionalism is simply the profession in law. Let’s say legal

practicing as lawyer, Serving as the Judge, Working in some governmental office of legal

field like Attorney general, Government Lawyer, Police prosecutor etc. Here for the

purpose of this paper the terms are dealt in a bit detail.

The terms legal ethics, professional responsibility, and professional legal ethics are used

interchangeably to indicate standards and rules regulating the conduct of lawyers faced

with conflicting moral and legal responsibilities. Such standards and rules are embodied

in the written laws, as well as in the customs, professional rules and judicial decisions of

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a country. The creation of codes of ethics which incorporate such standards not only

provides the necessary guidance to lawyers confronted by multiple, competing duties, but

also contributes to fostering the client’s and the public’s trust in the legal profession.1

Lawyers therefore should adhere to clear ethical-professional standards and must be

disciplined when failing to do so.

3.2 Professional ethics of lawyers

A layer as a social engineer has the great role to protect the people’s life, liberty, and

property. Lawyers are the justice fighter of the society. A single mistake and minor

negligence can cause the great loss to a person. That may also destroy the whole social

life of a person. So that, a lawyer must be very sensitive of his act. To control some of the

unethical behaviors and to ensure the good morality; the Nepal Bar council has framed

the rules regarding the Code of conduct of the Legal Practitioners. Specially the lawyers

are referred as the legal practitioners by the Nepal Bar Council Act and the Rule framed

under that Act.

3.3 Violation of Code of conduct and its punishments

3.4 Professional ethics of judges

“Lawyers are the justice fighter whereas the Judges are the Justice giver.” Having the

honorable position and a statute of justices in hand, the judges have to be very high

morally guided and bounded by the judicial mind. Judges are also the same human beings

as we are. But they have very special and distinctive role and authorities than others.

Judges of the country are, for the first time, getting a code of conduct of international

standard amidst realization that the existing code is obsolete. The nine-page code of

conduct obtained by the Post has eight main heads detailing what judges should and

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should not do to uphold judicial independence, impartiality and people’s faith in the

judiciary. It says that judges should not come into “inappropriate” contact with members of
the executive and legislature.

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 ANALYSIS

Section 49 (1)(c) of the Advocate Act ,1961, empowers the Bar Council of India to
make rules so as to prescribe the standards of professional conduct and etiquette to
be observed by the Advocate. In the exercise of the rule-making power under section
49(1)(c) of the Advocate Act ,1961, the bar council of India has made several rules
so as to prescribe the standards of professional conduct and etiquette. Chapter II of
part VI of the rules framed by the BCI deals with the standards of professional
conduct and etiquette.

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 Chapter –IV: Conclusion and Suggestions

Lawyers have played a prominent part, not only in the freedom struggle, but in earlier

days also, in shaping the Nepalese history. The legal profession has been aptly

summarized by justice P.B Sawant in an important judgment of the supreme court of

India as follows.33” The legal profession in solemn and serious occupation. It is a noble

calling and all those who belong to it are its honorable members. Although the entry to

the profession can be had by acquiring merely the qualification of technical competence,

the honor as a professional has to be maintained by its members by their exemplary

conduct both in and outside the court. The legal profession is different from other

professions in that what the lawyers do. After not only an individual but the

administration of justice which is the foundation of civilized society. Both as a leading

member of the intelligentsia of the society and as responsible citizen the lawyer has to

conduct himself as a model for others both in his professional and in his private and

public life. The society has a right to expect of him such ideal behavior”

The profession of law is called a noble profession. It does not remain noble merely by

calling it as such, unless there is continued corresponding and expected performance of a

noble profession. Its nobility has to be preserved, protected and promoted. An institution

cannot survive on its name or on its past glory alone. The glory and greatness of an

institution depends on its continued and meaningful performance with grace and dignity.

The profession of law seeing noble and an honorable one, it has to continue it’s

meaningful, useful and purposeful performance inspired by and keeping in view the high

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and rich traditions consistent with its grace, dignity, utility and prestige.

It is recognized that the ethical rules of the legal profession are designed to guarantee the

performance of the function of the lawyers. “In a democratic society, the profession of

lawyers has to be regulated by its members; consequently, lawyers should respect the

discipline of their own law society or bar and the practice in accordance with the general

principles governing the profession. Apart from knowing the importance of professional
ethics, the most important thing which we should point out is the falling standard in legal
profession in respect of following ethics. Lawyers should not violate their professional ethics
to protect the dignity and honor of their profession.Therefore we can conclude that it is
necessary to take corrective steps in time to protect the dignity of legal profession.

Suggestions

From the above finding and analysis I conclude that the lawyers often fail to follow the

professional ethics as set by national and international laws. But in case of judges we

rarely find who violates the code of ethics. May be that is due to the role only as an

umpire. The Lawyer code of conduct, 2051 set by national legislation of Nepal has not

been fully effectively implemented. Despite that the court is playing prominent role to

implement the code instead of the other subordinate bodies like Bar association, bar

Council and so on. Lawyers are not very serious about following the code of conduct.

Even we can find some of the renounced lawyers in whose cases there is biasness in

decisions. So from this we can see falling standard in legal profession in following

ethics. Therefore for the effective implementation of lawyers’ code of conduct and the

Code of conduct of the Judges, in context of Nepal I have got some recommendations

which are as follows:

1. For the effective implementation of code of conduct, the primary essence is the

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sense of internalizing the professional responsibilities by both professionals ie

lawyers and judges.

2. Secondly the lawyers should differentiate between their role and identity. In this

way the laws are always created to guide and regulate the role of the lawyer but

his behaviors and role are more guided his identity. So that to be a highly

honored, ethical and renounced lawyer or legal practitioner one must be familiar

with his role and identity.

3. There must be direct and exclusive judicial control mechanism for regulating

lawyers disciplinary.

4. State must provide adequate number of prosecutors as per the reciprocity of the

load of the cases.

5. Lawyers shall be a Good researcher for well preparation of their case.

6. Judges must more close his eyes and open his ears to hear the dispute. In this

sense, judge should not only focus on the lawyer’s argument, rather he/she must

go beyond this and with the judicial mind. He must find out whether a lawyer is

convincing or confusing the judge.

Although we are finding that our world gets smaller and smaller, our globalized legal

practice requires us to be more culturally attuned to our international brethren if we are to

effectively engage in dispute resolution. Legal ethics are the embodiment of the cultural

values of a legal system and its broader society. To fully appreciate the meaning of the

ethical differences between us and our colleagues from civil law countries, we have to get

beyond the actual written word and understand the context. The limited allocated space of

this column forced me to distill a complex and nuanced topic in a few short pages. Yes,

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there remain many unanswered questions. Optimistically, I believe that awareness of the

complexity of this topic, as with any cultural learning, makes for a good beginning.

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