themathe world, find' it necessary to consider cross-border and ethicsissues in representing clients. 15 Increasingly, lawyers representdiverse populations, including immigrants who maintainconnections to their homelands. 16 For example, a family lawyerin Vienna may need to understand the property and domesticrelations issues ofthe client-immigrant's homeland.Even if clients are not mobile, the Internet has connectedpeople around the world, resulting in legal entanglements. Thisis illustrated by the custody dispute over the twins adopted bythe couples in Great Britain and the U. S.Although the onlyconnectionthe couples shared was an Internet "adoption broker,"the couples became embroiled in a cross-border custody dispute.17 As a result, the attorneys for the couples, like the securitieslawyers handling international business transactions, mustund erstand the role and ethics of attorneys in other legal cultures,as weil as applicable substantive and procedurallaw. Thissuggests that the primary motivation for studying comparativeethics is client service and competence. 18At the same time, the study of comparative ethics helpsbridge cultural gaps.19 A study of the European Institute inFlorence on the state oflegal ethics in five European countrieshas recognized the importance of legal ethics in providing aparticular view oflaw and lawyers, as weil as the legal servicesmarket and the culture of the law. 20 Comparative study enableslawyers and law students to consider the extent towh ich they agree on core values and to appreciate that differencesoften turn on cultural differences. This is illustrated bydifferent perspectives on professional independence. Whilethe ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (ABA ModelRules) and various European ethics codes recognize the professionalindependence of attorneys as a core value, the conceptualizationofindependence varies. Under the ABA ModelRules the term "independence" is generally used to refer tothe attorney's duty to exercise independent professionaljudgment on behalf of clients, free from the control of thestate or third parties. On the other hand, under French professionalstandards, for example, "independence" includes independencefrom clients. 21 By examining such differences attorneysand law students around the world can learn from oneanotherwhile exploringthe adoption ofan international codeof ethics for cross-border practice around the world.2 2The adoption of the Code of Conduct for Lawyers in theEuropean Economic Community (CCBE Code) clearly demonstratesthat lawyers from different civil and common law legalsystems and backgrounds can reach some agreement on ethicalprinciples applicable to lawyers. 23 In European Unionmember states and various associate states the professionalauthorities responsible for lawyer regulation have adoptedthe CCBE CODE, specifying that it will apply to cross-borderpractice. This move is in stark contrast to the territorial trendin lawyer regulation in the U. S. As Europe moves toward transcendingnational borders, states within the U. S. continue tobe exclusionary, largely prohibiting lawyers licensed in onestate from practicing in another state where they are not licensedto practice. Now regulators in the U. S. are watchingthe European experience with an eye toward eliminating interstatebarriers to law practice within the U. S.24 Because itnow affects their pocket books, practitionerS' in the U. S. arejoining academics who are interested in easing restrictions oncross-border practice and studying comparative legal ethics.How Did I Structure the Comparative Ethics ClassOnce the practicing attorneys and academics recognize thevalue of studying comparative legal ethics, the next questionis how do you undertake the study. In organizing the ComparativeEthics course that I taught at the Ljubljana Law Faculty,I articulated a number of course objectives designed toexpose students to moral responsibility questions, as weil asregulatory issues. 25 With different regulatory topics, such asconfidentiality, we used a comparative approach, examining15 For a discussion of how globalization has"trickled down from 'Wall Street to Main Street'"see id. at 309. For examples of how solo practitionersand small firm attorneys provide cross-borderservices, see Mary C. Daly, Practicing Across Borders:Ethical Reflections for Small Firm and SoloPractitioners, 1995 THE PROFESSIONAL LAWYER 123.16 "Immigrants, even those who eventually becomecitizens, are retaining financial, cultural andpersonal ties to their countries of origin." Daly,supra note 2, at 1250-51.17 Sarah Lyall, Battle by 2 Couples to Adopt u. S.Twins Moves to Britain, New York Times, January18,2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/18/world/18ADOP.html (noting that the couples paidthe same adoption broker, resulting in an "extraordinaryinternational tug of war" revealing thevast difference between adoption laws.)18 As stated by Professor Daly, "Iawyers who engagein cross-border practice cannot competentlyrepresenttheir clients ifthey are unawarethattheforeign lawyers who are also providing legal servicesin the sametransaction, arbitration, or litigationare subjectto different or even conflicting ethicalnorms." MARY C. DAL Y, TRANSNATIONAL LEGALPRACTICE (forthcoming book) Chapter 5, at1.19 See Roger J. Goebel, Lawyers in the EuropeanCommunity: Progress Towards Community WideRights of Practice, 15 FORDHAM INTERNATIONALLAW JOURNAL 556,646 (1991-92) (urging thatcross-border legal practice be fostered because it"benefits clients, fa ci I itates U. S. - E. C. trade, andhel ps to bridge the cultural gap between diverselegal traditions.")20 DALY, supra note 19, Chapter 5, at 1-3 (quotingthe justifications for studying legal ethics advancedin the European Institute study set forth inAvrom Sherr, Dinners, library seats, wigs and relatives,41NTERNATIONALJOURNAL LEGAL PROFESSION 5 (1997).21 John Leubsdorf, The Independence ofthe Bar inFrance: Learningfrom Comparative Legal Ethics, inLAWYERS' PRACTICE & IDEALS: A COMPARATIVEVIEW, John J. Barcelo 111 & Roger C. Cramton, editors,at 275, 280 (1999) [hereinafter A COMPARATIVE VIEWj. Similarly underthe Code ofConductforLawyers in the European Economic Community(CCBE Code), the attorney's identity is not collapsedintothe client's. Laurel S. Terry, An Introduction tothe European Community's Legal Ethics Code Part I:An Analysis ofthe CCBE Code ofConduct, 7 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS 1, 48 (1993). Rather,an attorney underthe CCBE Code maintains anindependent identity, having certain rights that donot necessarily derivefrom clients.ld. at 52'22 An English Barristerwho served as the First VicePresident ofthe Council ofthe Bars and Law Societiesofthe European Community asserts that ifthewill exists that a common international code canbe agreed upon based on theABAModel Rules, theJapanese Code, and the CCBE Code).John Toulmin,Ethical Rules and Professional Ideologies, in A COMPARATIVE VIEW, supra note 22, at 377. 378-79.23 On October 28, 1988 the twelve member statesofthe European Economic Community adoptedthe CCBE Code. John Toulmin, A Worldwide CommonCode of Professional Ethics? 15 FORDHAM INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL 673 (1991-92). Eventhe "title CCBE represents a compromise" becausethe initials "CCBE" were kept even after the nameofthe organization was later changed to Councilofthe Bars and Law Council ofthe Bars and LawSocieties ofthe European Community.ld. at note 1.24 As stated by John B. Harris, Chairman oftheAssociation ofthe Bar ofthe City of New YorkCommittee on Professional Responsibility, "Youlook at the experience in Europe and say, 'Whycan't that happen in the U. S.?'" Debra Baker, NewPush for Going Mobile, European-style cross-borderpractices may be the next big wave here, A. B. A.JOURNAL, July 1999, at 18.25 The following are the course objectives I communicatedto the students: (1) to examine the ethicalconcerns raised by the attorney-client relationshipand attorneys' role in society, (2) to provideeach student with an opportunity to studyand analyze scholarship, commentary and inter-disciplinaryliterature related to legal ethics,(3) to analyze ethical decision-making theories andapproaches; (4) to provide students an opportunityto examine his or her own beliefs and perspectivesand those held by other class members, asweil as those held by law students and attorneysin the U. 5., and (5) to give students the basicframework so that they know what questions toask in approaching ethical dilemmas.Seite 146verlaJ>sterreich <strong>juridikum</strong> 3/01
different provisions in the Code of Professional Conduct ofthe Law Society of Siovenia, the CCBE Code, and the ABAModel Rules. I was impressed on how the students appreciatedthat different approaches reflect economics, as weil as thecultural and political context in which professionals practicelaw and make decisions.I was also pleased to see how engaged the students werein the second portion ofthe dass devoted to exploring moralresponsibility of attorneys. On a weekly basis the law studentsat the Ljubljana Law Faculty and my horne law school inTexas completed readings relating to the role ofattorneys andmoral discourse with dients. 26 Then they would exchangeviews, addressing specific questions that I posed via e-mail. Inthe weekly dass meetings the students would explore whatthey learned from the exchanges. During the dass meetingsthe students also participated in exercises and role-plays.I also required that they interview a practitioner. The studentsshared their interview reports with their e-mail partners.This enabled the students to get perspectives of an attorneyin their own country as weil the views of an attorneyfrom another country. The students indicated that theyfound the interviews to be productive and insightful. A fewcommented that the interview exercise gave them a reasonto interview an attorney.The attorney interviews complemented the students'on-line chat with a "holistic" attorney. After they had read anartide on the attorney which induded his views on "therapeuticjurisprudence" they posed questions to hirn on thedass website. A number of students recognized the value ofthe exchange in giving them a perspective on how a goodperson can be a good lawyer.Wh at We Learned from the ExperienceThe comparative legal ethics dass proved to be a very meaningfulexperience for me as the course leader and hopefullyfor the students as participants. The students on both sidesof the Atlantic commented on how much they valued the opportunityto learn from law students and attorneys in a differentculture and legal system, as weil as those in their owncountry. The Siovenian law students realized that Americantelevision programs and movies do not provide a representativeportrayal of law practice in the U. S. The U. S. law studentswho te nd to know little about other legal systemslearned a great deal from personal communications with fu-ture attorneys in former socialist country with a civillaw system.In their final essays, many students noted on the extentto which their e-mail partners shared similar values andviews.The students also appreciated the reflection exercisesand questions. Many explained that they had gone throughtheir legal education spending little or no time seriouslythinking about their role and moral responsibility as attorneys.Given that students in civil law countries tend to pursuea legal education following secondary school, they canonly benefit from experiences that challenge them to considerattorneys' position as public servants. At the same time,the U. S. law students who had previously only taken regulatoryethics dasses blossomed in the exchanges. Some commentedthat they openly expressed themselves in e-mailcommunications, although they seldom spoke in their otherlaw dasses. Based on my experience in teaching the comparativelegal ethics dass I am resolved to create more opportunitiesfor students to reflect on moral responsibility and discoursewith dients.AChalienge for the FutureFor professors who are interested in offering a comparativelegal ethics dass, ample course material is now available. 27Regardless of the emphasis of the course, the Internet willcontinue to be a multi-faceted tool for exploring comparativeethics. By using the Internet and ot.her resources we cantrain our students as internationallawyers who are groundedin their own legal system and "particularly attuned to issuesthat may arise in other jurisdictions."28I hope that my reflections on teaching a comparative legalethics dass provide an impetus for law faculties who are consideringhow to train future attorneys for the challenges theywill face in the twenty-first century. As legal educators it isour responsibility to continuously re-examine our curriculumgenerally and the content of our courses specifically. By criticallyevaluating our students' needs and our teaching objectiveswe recognize our own professional responsibility asgatekeepers ofthe legal profession.Professor Susan Fortney teaches at TexasTech University School of Law; in 2001 shestayed as a Fulbright Scholar at the Universityof Ljubljana Law Faculty.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 The readings principally came from LAWYERS,CliENTS, AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY byThomasL. Shaffer and Robert F. Cochran, Jr. (1994).27 The following materials provide good suggestionsfor structuring a comparative legal ethicscourse: (1) the conference materials from theAmerican Association of law School and AmericanSociety of International Law Workshop on ShiftingBoundaries: Globalization and its Discontents, January4,2000; and (2) a Mary C. Daly article entitled,The Ethicallmplications ofthe Globalizationofthe Legal Profession: AChallenge to the Teachingof Professional Responsibility in the Twenty-FirstCentury, 21 FORDHAM INTERNATIONAL LAW JOUR-NAL 1239,1251 (1998).1 am happyto provide copiesofthese items as weil as my course syllabus.28 Emmanuel Gaillard, A Comparative Look at theRoles, Fundions, and Adivities of U. s. Lawyers andThose in Major European Countries, in A COMPARATIVE VIEW, supra note 22, 221, 224.<strong>juridikum</strong> 3/01 verla~sterreich Seite 147