Ivakin, V.N. Inadmissibility of advocacy in unjust cases

Abstract: The use of knowledge and skills of advocates in order to support illegal or immoral claims or objections of clients was directly prohibited back in the Ancient Rome. This prohibition was included into the text of a special professional oath, which the advocates had to announce at the start of every case where they represented parties. Similar provisions were contained in the latter medieval normative legal acts and codes of local customs. However, it would be a mistake to regard these provisions as absolute, since evaluation of lawfulness and morality was given by the advocates themselves, and secondly the perspective of the case might have been unclear at the time when the client addressed a lawyer. The externally uncompromising position on inadmissibility of advocacy in unjust cases was taken by the French lawyers. However, with some time many renowned lawyers from other states were opposed to them. As for legislation, at the time of Napoleon on February 4, 1804 the text of a new oath of advocates was adopted, and it did not include any references as to choice of cases by them. By the second half of the XIX century only the Belgian legislation provided that the advocates should defend only those cases, which seem just to their soul and conscience”. However, the issue remained topical at the level of doctrine and ethics of advocates. For example, the English advocates did not came to agreement, and various disputes remained among the Russian advocates, which required that the discussion continued in XX century.

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