Going into the week, I had a goal of doing further research into limiting down my topic of interest from simply “law” to a more specific sect of law. While I did not find a specific area that I am ready to commit to yet, I did succeed in a different way. As I did more research into the different areas of law I did find that two specific areas stood out as interesting to me: criminal law and corporate law. While I know that even these two sects are very broad - as criminal law includes prosecution and defense both with very different approaches and characteristics and corporate law can take you into an even more specific focus depending on what field of the corporate world you are signed onto - this is a step in the right direction in terms of narrowing down my options. Additionally, I discovered a perspective that I can approach my research and ISM journey through that is extremely interesting to me: the ethical lens.
My discovery of the ethical side of law came as I was researching the concerns people have with criminal law, particularly criminal defense. This dealt with the morality of defending known major criminals, the duty you have to your client vs. the duty you have to your own morals and values, and many other concerns with the basic makeup of the practice. This was extremely interesting to me as there really is no set answer to any of those questions. Different people will have different views and opinions on the issue, often in concurrence with their own ethical character and their values, which makes research through this lens conceptually endless. This led me to find other questions that can be answered with an ethical view. Would I defend major criminals like Osama Bin Laden? Is it ethical to hold criminals at Guantanamo Bay without trial? How far should a lawyer go to defend a client they know is guilty? These questions provide branches for future research.
Goals for the coming week
This week I plan to do research through the ethical lens into many different concerns with the legal world and pick a few in particular that are of most interest to me. I also plan to brainstorm what I can do in this class with my ethical lens of law and whether this is something I need to narrow down to a more specific sect of law or if it is something I should look at from a broader level.
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