Legal Ethics from a Behavioral Ethics Perspective

Abstract

This study seeks to provide an overview of the behavioral approaches to legal ethics that have been at the forefront of the scholarly discourse in the last decade and a half. First, it summarizes the key pieces of research that led to the recognition of people’s bounded rationality and ethicality, describes the motivations that underlie ethical decision-making, and offers some empirical research examples to illustrate the situational factors and cognitive and social mechanisms that lead people to act unethically. It then examines certain characteristics of the legal profession that imply increased ethical risks from a behavioral perspective and concludes with a summary of the most important lessons drawn from behavioral ethics research that can contribute to the success of normative legal ethics models.