Imagining Justice

Abstract:     
As we approach the new century and the new millennium, those of us who are legal professionals in liberal capitalist democracies need to drastically improve our practices of law if we are to bring those practices in line with our professed ideals. The commodification and marketing of legal services, for example, combined with a nearly blind commitment to overly combative advocacy, puts legal assistance beyond the means of large segments of the public, severely undercutting our commitment to equality before the law. A different and perhaps harder question, however, is whether the ideals against which we judge our practices are themselves in need of rethinking. What are our aspirations, for law, and for the rule of law, in a liberal society at the turn of the millennium?

Number of Pages in PDF File: 4

Keywords: Commodification, law marketing, legal access, disadvantaged groups, state actors, private actors, judges, individual rights

JEL Classification: K10

Accepted Paper Series