Not Only in America: Representing 'Those People' in a Free and Democratic Society
How Can You Represent Those People, Abbe Smith and Monroe Freedman eds. (Palgrave MacMillan, 2013)
9 Pages Posted: 22 May 2018
Date Written: January 15, 2013
Abstract
Asking “How can you represent those people?” poses two distinct questions: “how can anyone represent those people?” and “how can you, personally, represent those people”. The first is an objective question, about the moral justification for criminal defence work; the second is subjective, and asks an individual lawyer to explain and justify her decision to spend her life as a criminal defender. This essay explains why any free and democratic society that aims to respect the dignity of its citizens will have criminal defence lawyers. It identifies the connection between the objective value of criminal defence and the subjective value of a person’s decision to be a criminal defence lawyer.
Keywords: legal ethics, criminal law, defence lawyers
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