Law versus Ethics

Abstract

Developing a workable system of public service ethics is difficult owing, to a fundamental tension between law (public duties) and ethics (private duties). This article surveys the literature on legal ethics to observe how a well-defined public service profession has reconciled this tension, to some extent, through the adoption of a "legalized" code of ethics that also allows professionals to step from behind the prescribed system of rules and engage his or her individual ethical sense in appropriate instances. The article then surveys the literature on administrative ethics and concludes that contrary to current trends aimed at deprofessionalizing the field, public administration would benefit from creating a new profession of public administrators that could adopt a code of ethics similar to the legal profession's code of ethics, thus allowing for a fusion of legalized rules (public duties) and individual ethical precepts (private duties).