Exploring the nexus between law and morality: ethical considerations in legal studies

Abstract

This publication aims to furnish a comprehensive examination of the ethical elements inherent in the roles of judges, prosecutors, attorneys, and notaries, elucidating their influence on the content of pertinent legal statutes governing the professional status of these legal vocations. The research employed various methodologies, encompassing the analytical method, the synthetic method, the method of scientific generalization, the method of interpreting legal norms, and the formal-logical method. The examination of legal understanding from a moral and ethical perspective involves the scrutiny of two principal concepts: the concept of natural law and the concept of legal positivism. This analytical framework enables the author to assert that a hallmark of progressive law-making lies in the adherence to not only the tenets of natural human rights but also moral and ethical principles during the formulation of legislative acts. In the context of the role and significance of ethics in the professional conduct of judges, prosecutors, attorneys, and notaries, the author undertakes an analysis of pertinent Ukrainian laws. It is asserted that within each of the examined legal enactments, ethical requirements assume a predominant role in the regulation of the legal status of practitioners in the specified legal professions. For instance, the non-violation of rules of professional ethics is delineated as a fundamental duty for specific categories of legal practitioners, with breaches serving as grounds not only for disciplinary consequences but also for the termination of the authority. Building upon the aforementioned observations, it is affirmed that the ethical dimensions of jurisprudence hold significance within contemporary legal discourse across three dimensions: adherence to moral and ethical principles in the crafting of legislative instruments; avoidance of breaches against ethical principles in the course of judicial, prosecutorial, attorney-at-law, and notarial activities; and the imperative that moral and ethical requirements remain inviolate during the preparation of legally consequential documents.