13. A Look at American Legal Practice through a Perspective of Jewish Law, Ethics, and Tradition: A Conceptual Overview

Abstract

A discussion of American legal practice through a perspective of Jewish law, ethics, and tradition may be considered under at least two distinct but interrelated approaches. A historical approach might look to attitudes toward lawyers found in sources relating to courts that have functioned under the Jewish legal system. Levine explains that, because Jewish courts classically operated under an inquisitorial system of justice, relatively few primary sources of Jewish law include material addressing the role of lawyers. Accordingly, references to lawyers in Jewish law and tradition may remain of little relevance to the practice of law in the contemporary United States, as any normative conclusions derived from these sources likely depend upon underlying assumptions inapplicable to the American adversary legal system. Levine suggests that an alternative approach might instead focus more generally upon areas of Jewish law and ethics that, although perhaps not always directly related to the substance of legal practice, may in fact offer a more accurate indication of the attitudes of Jewish tradition toward the work of American lawyers. Toward that end, he presents a three-tiered conceptual framework suitable for an analysis of the implications for Jewish law and ethics of a broad range of human activities, including various aspects of the practice of law. Finally, branching out from Jewish tradition, Levine concludes with a broader reference to the effectiveness of the religious lawyering movement in providing a means for improving exploration of and attitudes toward the work and ethics of lawyers.