Ethics In International Proceedings

Article by Sheila Block*

Published in International Litigation News, October 2004

There is a psychological condition that sometimes overtakes travellers. They feel invincible in a foreign country, as though, being away from home, the normal restraints on their conduct no longer apply. Any rational observer would know that this approach was naive and fraught with potential danger but, some how, being away from the familiar constraints of the home jurisdiction, is dangerously liberating.

There may be some element of this syndrome which applies to lawyers who practise occasionally in other jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction has its own set of ethical rules and codes of conduct. There are many common elements among them. But much of what constrains and shapes conduct derives from shared values of the Bar in which the lawyer typically practises. When operating outside that environment, some of the unwritten pressures which come from the shared values may seem less pressing. This is