
ETHICS IN SERVICE - by William Howard Taft
Delivered as a series of lectures to a graduating class at a leading university, this work opens by tracing the long‑standing relationship between law and society. Drawing on examples from ancient Jewish, Roman and English traditions, the speaker shows how the legal profession has long served as a bridge between individual rights and collective order. He argues that a paid, adversarial system remains the most practical means of achieving justice, while urging listeners to see the profession as a moral enterprise as well as a technical one.
Turning to the present, the author describes a growing public distrust of the courts and the perception that lawyers often distort truth for profit. With experience as both a practitioner and a judge, he calls for a careful re‑examination of ethical rules that can restore confidence without demanding impossible perfection. The tone is sober and hopeful, emphasizing gradual, reasoned reform grounded in historical lessons.
Language
en
Duration
~2 hours (133K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Bryan Ness, Colin Bell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)
Release date
Dec 9, 2006
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1857–1930
The only American to serve as both president and chief justice, he spent his life moving between law, politics, and public service. His story blends high office, hard choices, and a quieter personal wish to be remembered as a judge.
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