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- Title
Do Professional Ethics Make Negotiators Unethical? An Empirical Study with Scenarios of Divorce Settlement.
- Authors
Saito, Hiroharu
- Abstract
This is an empirical study to examine effects of the U.S. attorneys' professional ethical rules in negotiation. This study is the first to seriously measure the effects of the professional ethical rules. The first novel feature of this study is in its methodology: the author conducted a survey of law school students, which enabled a comparison of two groups: those who have already learned professional ethics and those who have not yet learned them. The questionnaire presented three hypothetical cases with certain ethical dilemmas in divorce settlement negotiations. It asked the respondents how they would deal with the situations and what the reasons behind their decisions were. The second novel feature is the inclusion of ethical dilemmas concerning a third party's human rights. Specifically, this study used situations to negotiate custody of a child, a non-monetary issue. Key findings: compared to respondents before ethical education, respondents after ethical education defer to the parent's (the client's) interests more; and in return, they are more reluctant to disclose true information or to care about the child's welfare. The results indicate that the professional ethical rules and legal education in the U.S. diminishes attorneys' ethical sense of fairness (in particular, truthfulness) and public interests (in particular, third party's human rights) while enhancing loyalty to their clients.
- Subjects
UNITED States; LAWYERS; LAWYER attitudes; PROFESSIONAL ethics; DIVORCE settlements; NEGOTIATION; HUMAN rights; SURVEYS
- Publication
Harvard Negotiation Law Review, 2017, p325
- ISSN
1556-0546
- Publication type
Article