Imperfect Duty: Lawyers' Obligation to Foster Access to Justice

Abstract:     
Access to justice is an integral component of the legal system. However, the question of upon whose shoulders the obligation of ensuring this access should fall has been widely debated. In particular, do lawyers as part of the legal profession, have a special obligation to foster access to justice? In this article the author explores the legitimacy of various arguments with respect to whether lawyers should carry this obligation to a greater extent than other members of society. Overall, the author concludes that while the arguments arising from imperfections in the market for legal services offer the best justification for seeing lawyers as having a special obligation to ensure access to justice, the claims from the argument are modest ones, and any policy response in furtherance of such an obligation should be similarly modest.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 43

Accepted Paper Series