Ethics and professional commitment

TITLE OF THE PAPER: Ethics and professional commitment

GUADALUPE IBARRA ROSALES

Abstract 

This paper shows an advance of the project entitled: Ethics and Professional Identity”, currently under development by the Institute of Researches about the University and Education (Instituto de Investigaciones sobre la Universidad y la Educación, IISUE) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, UNAM). This project pursues the study of the ethics and the professional values of the lawyer.

This work develops the ethical profile of students currently studying the Major in Law in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria Campus), based on the results obtained from a survey carried out on a representative sample of these students.

The work consists of three sections. The first one explains the research methods, specifying the objectives and research lines. The second one develops the following theoretical frames: a) Theoretical perspectives of the professional ethics, categories and basic concepts; and b) Ethics and Professional Deontology of the lawyer, categories and basic concepts. The third section deploys the characteristics that distinguish the ethical profile of the sampled students, constructed from the professional values that the participants recognize as inherent of advocacy as a profession. Here, attention is put on the set of values that express the professional and social commitment and responsibility.