Kenneth M. Rosen. “Lessons on Lawyers, Democracy, and Professional Responsibility.” Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics , vol. 19, no. 155 (2006): 155-224.
Even in the United States, some feel that a main theme of contemporary political science has become the flawed nature of democracy-a notion that also reaches law school classrooms. In advocating the teaching of a democracy duty, my purpose is not to settle the debate of another academic discipline on democracy’s benefits and shortcomings or to argue that U.S. democracy is perfect. Indeed, part of the democracy duty advocated herein is for lawyers to work towards an improved democracy. Only by achieving a fuller understanding of democracy, including its flaws, can this be accomplished. His words reflect a belief amongst the bar and across society that lawyers are particularly important to the functioning of American democracy… Indeed, given their critical role in U.S. democracy, lawyers can be said to have a professional responsibility to understand that democracy and to support it as citizen lawyers. At an even more basic level, knowing the intricacies of democracy is part of a U.S. lawyer’s fundamental responsibility to be competent.