June 16, 2019
Lawyer subculture: Switzerland versus the U.S.A.
The cultures of Switzerland and the U.S.A are distinct in many significant ways. Yet at the same time the flaws of the American legal system manifest themselves equally in Switzerland. The reason is that the influencing environment– the subcultural influences on lawyers in both countries– is fundamentally identical.
Restraints on the conduct of lawyers in the U.S.A., as per the rule of law and professional ethics, are put in check by the powers that lawyers have to intimidate, to engender fear, and to influence media.
An intense hierarchy in the legal profession can result in the expression of greater concern for the impact of any case on the workings of the local profession itself– fellow lawyers, judges, politicians, friends– than on the rule of law, professional ethics, fairness or concern for any, one client.
It should be remembered, any one client is one day in the life of his/her lawyer, but the system itself and its members remain for the duration. It is thus that to “win” any given legal case, if that win alienates colleagues, is not to win at all. It is important for the layperson to understand this concept. It violates the common wisdom that, of course, every lawyer wants to win every case. It is not unusual for a defense lawyer to intentionally lose a case and betray his own client rather than offend members higher in the hierarchy. This unfortunate condition, combined with negligence and lack of accountability, all too commonly results in headlines such as the following:
“America’s Corrupt Legal System: Rigged courts, bribed judges, phony trials, extortion by lawyers, and over 2 million prisoners in the USA gulag,” by Global Research (www.globalresearch.ca). The scenario of misconduct and injustice is also commonly reported in respected media such as The Marshall Project (www.themarshallproject.org), The New York Times (www.nyt.com), Propublica (www.propublica.org) and many others.
For a full explanation of the lawyer subculture and legal system corruption, we should also consider the influence of unchecked power and fear on the human nervous system. Both of these elements play a prominent role in the lawyer subculture.
This blog examines issues of lawyer/justice system corruption based on actual cases and explains how a lawyer subculture, barely distinguishable whether in Switzerland, the U.S.A or, indeed, many other nations, explains legal system dysfunction.
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