Shortlisted for the 2000 Walter Owen Book Prize (first edition)
The importance of ethical behaviour and professional responsibility has long been something lawyers have insisted is a hallmark of their chosen profession. However, many lawyers would argue that a discussion of these matters is necessary only when considering isolated and occasional cases of aberrant behaviour. In Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Allan Hutchinson makes a convincing case that this view no longer serves the profession well. He argues that the profound changes in the way in which law is practised, and the demographic shifts among those who practise it, demand a new and systematic approach to the subject—one that stresses personal responsibility over professional regulation. Professor Hutchinson's book is both an accessible introduction to legal ethics and professional responsibility for students of law and a provocative call to arms for the profession as a whole. The second edition of the book contains significant discussion and analysis of the Canadian Bar Association's new Code of Professional Conduct, which was adopted in 2006.

A member of Osgoode Hall Law School's faculty since 1982, Allan Hutchinson was recently elected to the Royal Society of Canada and made a distinguished research professor of York University. He is currently associate dean (research, graduate studies and external relations). Professor Hutchinson is a legal theorist with an international reputation for his original and provocative writings. As well as publishing in most of the common-law world's leading law journals, he has written or edited many books, including The Civil Litigation Process (Toronto: Emond-Montgomery, 2005). Much of his work has been devoted to examining the failure of law to live up to its democratic promise. His most recent publications are Evolution and the Common Law (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), The Companies We Keep: Corporate Governance for a Democratic Society (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2005), and Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, second edition (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2006).

Allan C. Hutchinson's profile page

• Short-listed, Walter Owen Book Prize

"Allan Hutchinson's book...represents the true breakthrough in the scholarship of legal ethics in Canada.... [I]t would be unfortunate if legal scholars and lawyers skipped over the book because it is the first comprehensive critique of legal ethics in Canada."

Adam Dodek, University of Toronto Law Journal