(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii, 2013) Skuczyński, Paweł
The model of legal profession is one of the most important features
of every legal culture and constitutional identity. The paper
aims at explaining the identity of Polish legal profession according
to their history and evolution of Polish political and constitutional
basic ideas. The argument is that the strongly manifested
element of this identity is lawyers’ paternalism. That means lawyers
act to protect the interest of their clients often without an
alignment or even against their clients will. This attitude toward
the lawyer-client relationship is deeply rooted in Polish legal culture,
especially in interconnection of two discourses. First is the
egalitarian one which establishes the task of lawyers as to provide
to everyone equal legal aid and to protect everyone’s rights
and liberties. Second is the elitist one that tend to justify the claim
that effective legal aid and the protection of right and liberties is
possible only through some special abilities and skills of lawyers
which not everyone could possess.