Donald Nicolson – författare

Ethics and regulation have become catchwords of the late 1990s, yet relatively little has been written about the ethical discourse and regulation of the legal professions in England and Wales. This book represents the first attempt to subject the ethical discourse of the English legal professions to in-depth analysis and sustained critique. Drawing on insights from moral philosophy, social theory, the sociology of the legal profession, public law theories of regulation, and the extensive American literature on lawyers' ethics, it argues that, in seeking to provide definitive answers to particular problems of professional conduct, professional legal ethics has failed to deliver an approach which requires lawyers actively to engage with the ethical issues raised by legal practice. Through an analysis of the core issues facing lawyers, the authors locate this failure in the profession's reliance on a liberal and adversarial role morality that conceptualises the ethical values of human dignity, autonomy and equality in a formalistic and narrowly legalistic manner. This encourages lawyers to overlook the real invasions of these values so often wrought by upholding clients legal rights, and to ignore the competing claims of affected third parties, the wider community and the environment In seeking to move beyond critique, the authors develop throughout the book a contextual approach to individual ethical decision-making and outline a range of institutional, regulatory and educational reforms which, they suggest, could form the basis for a more ethical brand of professionalism.Professional Legal Ethics: Critical Interrogations is a wide-ranging and thought-provoking analysis written for lawyers, ethicists and policy-makers interested in this neglected area of professional ethics and regulation.

This accessible How To Guide provides practical, expert guidance on how to successfully set up and run a law clinic. Donald Nicolson, JoNel Newman and Richard Grimes explore the process of designing a clinic to address unmet legal needs, enhance student learning, and maximise the additional benefits of a clinic. How to Set up and Run a Law Clinic is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of running a clinic. Based on the authors’ first-hand experience, the book analyses a variety of day-to-day issues that can arise when setting up a law clinic and provides invaluable solutions to these commonly occurring challenges. In investigating how clinics may be run, and what services they can provide, the book investigates possible tensions between educational and social justice objectives, and how they may be resolved to meet these dual aims. The book examines how the expectations of all stakeholders, including those with regulatory oversight of clinical activities, can be managed and met.Those working within law schools who are wishing to set up or expand law clinics will find this book to be highly useful. It will be a valuable resource for those aiming to enhance employability and experiential learning offerings. Students, and legal practitioners, wishing to gain insight into the value of clinical work will also find this to be a helpful guide.

This collection examines the case for affirmative action in the UK in relation to employment, higher education, the legal profession, the judiciary, political representation and minority language rights. Draws on experience of affirmative action in the United States, Canada and Germany. Contributions highlight the importance of how affirmative action is conceptualised and of context in evaluating the case for affirmative action. Emphasises the need for pragmatic judgments about the likely effectiveness and costs of affirmative action policies.

This is the first textbook to set the Scots law of evidence against a modern backdrop of legal thought and empirical research. It examines the non-legal dimensions of evidence and proof through the lens of legal philosophy, procedure, sociology, science and psychology to analyse the contexts that affect the handling of facts and the process of proof in Scotland. Drawing extensively on socio-legal research, the book provides an accurate picture of how fact-finding works in Scotland – giving students the foundation for a complete, critical and contextual understanding of Scots evidence law.

This is the first textbook to set the Scots law of evidence against a modern backdrop of legal thought and empirical research. It examines the non-legal dimensions of evidence and proof through the lens of legal philosophy, procedure, sociology, science and psychology to analyse the contexts that affect the handling of facts and the process of proof in Scotland. Drawing extensively on socio-legal research, the book provides an accurate picture of how fact-finding works in Scotland – giving students the foundation for a complete, critical and contextual understanding of Scots evidence law.

This accessible How To Guide provides practical, expert guidance on how to successfully set up and run a law clinic. Donald Nicolson, JoNel Newman and Richard Grimes explore the process of designing a clinic to address unmet legal needs, enhance student learning, and maximise the additional benefits of a clinic. How to Set up and Run a Law Clinic is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of running a clinic. Based on the authors’ first-hand experience, the book analyses a variety of day-to-day issues that can arise when setting up a law clinic and provides invaluable solutions to these commonly occurring challenges. In investigating how clinics may be run, and what services they can provide, the book investigates possible tensions between educational and social justice objectives, and how they may be resolved to meet these dual aims. The book examines how the expectations of all stakeholders, including those with regulatory oversight of clinical activities, can be managed and met.Those working within law schools who are wishing to set up or expand law clinics will find this book to be highly useful. It will be a valuable resource for those aiming to enhance employability and experiential learning offerings. Students, and legal practitioners, wishing to gain insight into the value of clinical work will also find this to be a helpful guide.