Deontology of Legal Professions

The aim of this course is to build knowledge with regard to the theoretical and legal aspects of the ethics of legal professions, and will consider legal ethics as including both deontological norms stricto sensu and disciplinary ones. It aims to provide knowledge with specific regard to lawyers, the judiciary and notaries. This in turn also thanks to the "direct" contact in class with representatives of the legal professions. For what concerns lawyering, this course also aims to provide knowledge for the Bar examination. Students' active participation in class is a crucial aspect with regard to the aims of this course.

Students are expected at the end of the course to have acquired the ability to apply abstract knowledge to a specific sector and concrete situation with regard to legal ethics as well as to have honed their capacity of analysis and synthesis. They are also expected to have developed their ability to formulate autonomous judgments and their capacity to learn through sources other than written texts. Lessons, that for what concerns the theoretical contributions will draw from disparate disciplines such as legal theory, legal philosophy, socio-legal studies, law and literature and legal ethics, will therefore include analysis of films, videos and literary texts, in addition to hosting lawyers, judges and notaries who will share their practical experiences and thoughts. Students should have improved their ability to communicate in public, and more specifically learned how to defend a thesis and develop supporting arguments. They are also expected to have expanded their learning skills to continue to study in a manner that may be largely self-directed and autonomous and to make the transition from the university to legal professions.