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6 - Professional Secrets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2023

Adrian Evans
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
Richard Wu
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
Shenjian Xu
Affiliation:
China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing
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Summary

Client confidentiality expresses the duty of loyalty to our clients, but our secrets are shrinking. Social media, hacking and surveillance are increasingly modern realities. Globally, concern about leaky ‘cloud’ storage, terrorism, corruption, organised crime and money laundering, as well as economic and trading challenges to state and public security, are reportable and create an environment in which lawyers cannot guarantee clients’ privacy. Nevertheless, professional secrecy remains important for lawyers to observe, because clients will not trust us if they think their affairs will be disclosed. We tabulate the confidentiality conduct rules across Greater China and analyze several scenarios according to the four frameworks of general morality. Deciding to keep a secret for good reasons can be a moral act that increases the stability of society. In the mainstream of cases where there are no state secrecy issues, lawyers need to re-legitimize support for client confidentiality because keeping secrets is still important to our communities, so that filial and personal relationships are respected and the common privacy we all need is retained.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Good Chinese Lawyer
A Student Guide to Law and Ethics
, pp. 197 - 216
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Professional Secrets
  • Adaptation by Adrian Evans, Monash University, Victoria, Richard Wu, The University of Hong Kong, Shenjian Xu, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing
  • Book: The Good Chinese Lawyer
  • Online publication: 24 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009208505.007
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  • Professional Secrets
  • Adaptation by Adrian Evans, Monash University, Victoria, Richard Wu, The University of Hong Kong, Shenjian Xu, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing
  • Book: The Good Chinese Lawyer
  • Online publication: 24 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009208505.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Professional Secrets
  • Adaptation by Adrian Evans, Monash University, Victoria, Richard Wu, The University of Hong Kong, Shenjian Xu, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing
  • Book: The Good Chinese Lawyer
  • Online publication: 24 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009208505.007
Available formats
×