Law Commons^™

Visions Of Practice In Legal Thought, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

This essay contrasts the vision of law practice expressed in the established professional culture with a vision derived from recent Critical legal writing.

From Tort To Crime: Some Reflections On The Criminalization Of Fiduciary Breaches And The Problematic Line Between Law And Ethics, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Within the context of mail and wire fraud prosecutions, criminal liability for breach of fiduciary duties is being imposed with increasing frequency. Professor Coffee discusses the disturbing failure of the courts to require that the fiduciary's conduct have caused legally cognizable harm to the beneficiary. He concludes that an affirmative defense should be available to fiduciaries to show the lack of proximate cause between a breach and the injury. In addition, federal enforcement should occur only after state and private remedies have proven inadequate.

Homo Psychologicus: Notes On A New Legal Formalism, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

Having survived the assault of the Realists earlier in this century, the doctrinal tradition in legal theory and legal education is undergoing a second wave of criticism. Again, doctrinal writing and education is charged with promoting a conservative ideological perspective and with ignoring the practical tasks of lawyering. Law schools are criticized for failing both to train competent practitioners and to instill in their students an appropriate sense of "responsibility."

One of the most interesting aspects of this second wave of criticism has been the emergence of a new style of discourse about law inspired by psychology. This style, which …

The Ideology Of Advocacy: Procedural Justice And Professional Ethics, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

Conventional morality frowns at the ethics of advocacy. Public opinion disapproves of what it considers the lawyer's most characteristic activities. Popular culture can reconcile itself to him only by pretending that all his clients are virtuous. The lawyer's response takes the form of a dialectic of cynicism and naiveté. On one hand, he sees his more degrading activities as licensed by a fundamental amorality lying beneath conventional morality. On the other hand, he sees his more heartening ones as serving an institutional justice higher than conventional morality. The two moods divide the profession as a whole, and the division can …