ABSTRACT
PROJECT TITLE : Ethics in
legal profession
NAME OF INVESTIGATOR: Prof. Vicha Mahakun , et al.
Abstract
The
purposes of this study are (1) to comparatively study the development of ethical
principles of Legal profession in Thailand and other countries; (2) to study problems
of ethics of Legal profession and impacts of the problems to Thai society
nowadays; (3) to study the mechanisms controlling the conduct in Legal
profession; and (4) to propose the problem-solving guidelines of ethics of Legal
profession. The methods of
data collection for this study are document reviews, interviews
and questionnaires.
The
results of this study are (1) the development of ethical principles of Legal profession
in Thailand and other countries is different in sources of ideas and theories. The
divergence is result from the difference in history, politics, governance and
society. However, there is some linkage in Legal Profession. What East &
West philosophers view the same is the justice, the segregation between good
and evil, the exclusion of personal interests from public interests, value of
work and responsibilities of Legal profession that is to maintain harmony,
peace of society and justice. All mentioned above require lawyers to hold the
high moral standards than other professions.Two problems on ethics in Legal
profession that citizens and Legal professions agree mostly are (1) lack of deeply
cultivating core value and imparting the comprehension about legal ethics and (2)
impacts of Globalization. With global changes, the present social value and
culture pay more attention to the importance of materialism, capital and power
than to maintain the core value of ethics in Legal profession. These two issues
significantly cause people lost trust in justice system & Legal professions,
disharmony and inequality in society, breaking the course of fear in laws and
legislation, injustice, reduction in awareness of ethics profession, and increasing
core value in materialism, power, authoritarianism as well as consumerism. All
these lead to numerous troubles such as economic, political, and social problems
as well as corruption. It was found that the set mechanisms for controlling
conduct in Legal profession are appropriate but the issue is no serious
implementation or law enforcement in practice.
The
finding of attitude survey indicates that people still
trust in Legal Profession and they expect higher standards of Legal profession.
This may lead to the important change in Legal profession. This study suggested
the guidelines to solve the problems such as developing laws, managing human
resource of Legal organization, cultivating accurate idea and core value,
improving the education, teaching and training programs, enhancing the check
and balance system of organizations that audit Legal profession.
The
objectives of the guidelines are (1) to uphold ethics in Legal
profession; (2) to keep up the pace of changes in global
trend, economy, and society; (3) to promote a high standard of professional conduct for Legal
profession; (4) to make lawyers aware of the importance of ethics in Legal
profession that it is the foundation and focal point of Legal profession to
build up the public trust that lawyers hold their dignity and honor as
professions who devote themselves to maintain affection, faith in merit & morals,
justice, human dignity, national security, peace of society and establish all
these to exist and stay there timeless not to mention the past, present and
future.
Key Words: Ethics
of Legal Profession , ethics ,
profession , legal.
source : The Thailand Research Fund (TRF)
http://www.trf.or.th/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=122
