LEET Advanced

• Ethics


  A branch of philosophy that aims to answer the basic question as to what should one do?
• Ethics


  1. The process of reflection in which peoples decisions are shaped by their values, principles and purpose

  2. Rather than unthinking habits, social conventions or self-interests

  3. Serves as point of reference for all possible actions we take
• Ethical decision


  One that is based on reflection about the things we think are important and that is consistent with those beliefs
• Morality


  • Morality is found useful by many
  • People don't have time to always look at their values principles etc before making decisions so morality assist as it's a consistent coherent account redefined through history applied in ones daily life
  • Morality can be inherited from family, community or culture
  • The process is unconscious
• If we inherit ready made answers of how we should live, do we ever assess if this is the right way to live or we just apply it
• Law


  • The law is not morality in the strict sense of the word
  • In democratic nations it allows private space where individuals can live according to their own ethical beliefs or morality
  • The law creates basic, enforceable standard of behavior necessary in order for a community to succeed/social institutions to continue running and in which people are treated equally
  • The law is narrower in focus than ethics and morality
  • Some matters where law is agnostic (is quiet) but ethics have a lot to say and morality
• If you fulfil legal obligations, it is found to be ethical, if seeing the law and ethics as the same
• Legality


  Attachment to or observance of the law (obligations imposed by the law) refer to the compliance with established rules and laws, derived externally from these laws and regulations
• Legitimacy


  A norm of legal order is valid until its validity is terminated in a way determined by this legal order or replaced by the validity of another norm of this order (having the to govern, conforming to the law) quality of being valid or defensible in authority and governance is derived from moral and ethical principles
• Where legal rules do not reflect these values (Constitutional) it may result in a legitimacy crisis
• Rule of law


  Adherence to the law and the rules of law
• Social contract


  People enter into contracts with one another and the sovereign state, each person gives up their unlimited freedom in order to make peaceful co-existence possible
• Justice


  • The ideal of any legal system
  • Distributive justice is when there's an equal distribution of justice among equal members of the society
  • Corrective justice is when the aim is reversing inequalities, restoring equality in the society
  • Essential element of justice is equality but the law does not always embody justice
• Law


  • A body of rules or regulations that facilitate and regulate human interaction and that orders society and gives certainty
  • Rules are applied and interpreted by institutions of the state
  • Rules are enforced by employees of the state
  • Legislative, make laws
  • Judiciary, courts
  • Executive, authority of enforcement
• Judicial independence and impartiality

  • Impartiality also known as fair mindedness or even handedness
  • Principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria
  • Not based on basis of bias, prejudice or preferring the benefit of one person over another for improper reasons
  • For judiciary to be independent and impartial to serve the constitutional goals, judges need to act fairly, reasonably, free of any fear or favor
  • Judiciary stands between citizens and state to avoid abuse of power of executive
• Legal positivism


  • Emphasis that the normativity of law is not necessarily moral; throughout his jurisprudential work, he maintained a legal positivist insistence (insisted/refused) on the separability of law and morality
  • It's possible for an unjust law to be applied just, only if those rules are given positivist content/written down
  • Law is not considered to be what it is ought to be but what it is
  • According to judges the law need only mechanically applied
• Michael Kelly's 4 Levels of Ethics

  • Level 1: Professional Rules that determine protocol
  • Level 2: Rules of conduct based on opinion
  • Level 3: Critical ethical assessment of law and society
  • Level 4: Professional ethical matters not covered by the professional code of conduct
• Burns S Theory on ethics


  Imparting to students a critical understanding of the legal profession, its structures, its roles and responsibilities, the role and responsibilities of lawyers in their provision of professional services and individual students own values and attitudes. It examines what the legal profession does and ought to do. Legal ethics teaches students disciplinary rules regulating the legal profession. These are usually statute based and enforced by punitive sanctions. It is also concerned with personal value or morality ties on individual lawyers and issues such as the legitimacy of requiring lawyers to perform roles that conflict with personal values
• Henriss-Anderson theory on ethics

  Legal ethics is the teaching of the values that underpin the legal system which includes professional rules and values. It allows or includes the understating of the values underlying the legal system which necessitates the understanding of the institutions of law, its process, structures and its philosophical, historical and sociological context while considering the concept of justice. It also allows the development of ones personal ethics and value framework which forms ethical judgment
• Client and legal practitioner relationship

  • Professional paternalism: Legal practitioner and their client, a power dynamic not unique to legal profession but one that operates in most professions. The profession is well skilled within the profession and the client must trust the suggested course of action.
  • Weighing up professional responsibility and personal morality: Personal morality of practitioner may be at variance with that of client. Kelly suggests that a practitioner who is prepared to act even for unethical client is, in spite of conventional views on ethics, indeed demonstrating what it means to be an ethical lawyer. Drawing the line between the formal limits of loyalty and his personal morality is the dilemma face by practitioners. Professional code of conduct does not limit representation of factually guilty client, but they have to justify to themselves reasons for accepting mandate, often leads to contempt of client and them doing no more than basics. There's psychological pressure that comes with representing an unethical client for fear of reputational damage and or loss of respect among peers if he is seem to be zealously representing the morally reprehensible. This ethical dilemma has both immediate and long term effects for the practitioner
• Aristotle's virtue ethics


  The consideration in virtue ethics is essentially "what makes a good person" or for the purpose of this education "what makes a good public relations professionally"? Virtue ethics require the decision maker to understand what virtues are good for public and then decisions are made in light of those particular virtues.
• Bentham's Utilitarian theory


  The first ethical system is normative ethics, utilitarianism is often equated with the concept of "the greatest good for the greatest number"
• Factually guilty client, but they have to justify to themselves reasons for accepting mandate, often leads to contempt of client and them doing no more than basics
• There's psychological pressure that comes with representing an unethical client for fear of reputational damage and or loss of respect among peers if he is seem to be zealously representing the morally reprehensible
• This ethical dilemma has both immediate and long term effects for the practitioner
• Aristotle's virtue ethics


  The consideration is essentially "what makes a good person" or "what makes a good public relations professionally"? Virtue ethics require the decision maker to understand what virtues are good for public and then decisions are made in light of those particular virtues
• Bentham's Utilitarian theory


  The first ethical system is normative ethics, utilitarianism is often equated with the concept of "the greatest good for the greatest number". The idea if that ethical decisions are made based on the consequences of the action with is why it is also sometimes called consequentialism
• Kant's Deontology Theory


  Idea that human beings should be treated with dignity and respect because they have rights. Put another way is could be argued that in deontological ethics people have a duty to respect other people's rights and treat them accordingly. Core concept is that there are objective obligations or duties that are required of all people. When faced with ethical situation, then the process is simply one of identifying one's duty and making the appropriate decision
• Three Theories of Ethics

  • Utilitarian ethics
  • Deontological ethics
  • Virtue Ethics
• Utilitarian ethics


  The greatest good for the greatest number of people
• Deontological ethics


  Idea that people should be treated with dignity and respect
• Virtue Ethics


  Considering that virtues make a good public relations professionally
• Application


  • Making a decision based on what will benefit the majority
  • Identifying one's duty and acting accordingly
  • Making a decision in light of those favored virtues
• Pros and cons


  • Con: Decision makes are forced to guess the outcome of their decision. Harming a minority and benefiting a majority doesn't build good mutually beneficial relationships. It is not always possible to predict the outcome of a decision.
  • Con: There may be many disagreements about the principals involved in the decision. The possibility of making a right choice with bad consequences
  • Possibilities of duties conflicting. Pro: strongest model for applied public relation ethics. Con: misses the importance of obligations to client and publics. The possibility of a conflict in virtues
• Kant Deontological, Aristotle Virtue and Banthems Utilitarian
• Ubuntu


  I am because you are. Ubuntu ethics can be termed anti-egoistic as it discourages people from seeking their own good without regard of others or at the detriment of other and the community. Ubuntu promotes the spirit that one should live for others
• To begin to see the philosophical appeal of grounding ethics on such a conception of community, consider the identifying within others can be cashed out in terms of sharing a way of life and exhibiting solidarity toward others is naturally understood in terms of caring about their quality of life. And the union of sharing a way of life and caring about other's quality of life is basically what English speakers mean by a broad sense of friendship or even love. Hence, one major stand of SA culture laces friendly or loving relationship at the heart of morality as others have truly summarized Ubuntu on occasion
• The rules regulating the legal profession are drawn from various sources and collectively regulate conduct of legal practitioners. Failure to act in accordance with these rules is sanctioned through disciplinary steps that may include suspension or removal from the roll of practitioners
• Legal practitioners are required to be fit and proper, be honest, integrity and be reliable. Attorneys are guardians of the constitution and are required to be professional and adequately trained
• Fit and proper


  A person who is honest, reliable and has integrity. A person who is competent, trustworthy, law abiding and honourable