Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Sunday, September 10, 2006 1:07:05 AM
I can't imagine that any member of the bar association would care to be compared in his/her conduct to the conduct of UN diplomats, and yet, I think it is fair to do so.
UN Diplomats have full diplomatic immunity. Their immunity is almost identical to the level of immunity that the state supreme court has granted the legal profession, lawyers, judges, and itself.
Someone once told me that the legal profession wasn't bad, but that it did admit bad people to the practice of law. What happens when bad people can operate in an environment free of legal and ethical constraints? Let's see what Economist Raymond Fisman had to say about it in "Reforming Tony Soprano's Morals."
The last paragraph bears repeating:
"Moral: Reformers of economic and social institutions must be aware that local values may (the courts and the bar associations will) undermine their efforts. Changing the law is helpful but not by itself sufficient to induce change in a corrupt world. This bleak message resonates with what ordinary people in less developed countries (litigants) would say about reform: Eradicating corruption will be a difficult task indeed."
The strike outs and substitutions are mine.