THE ETHICAL TRAINING OF LAWYERS IN CONTEMPORARY LEGAL EDUCATION: CHALLENGES TO THE LEGITIMACY OF THE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE OF LAW IN LATIN AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEMS

Abstract

The ethical training of the lawyer has acquired special relevance in Latin America in the face of the persistent crisis of legitimacy of the professional practice of law, marked by citizen distrust and repeated questioning of the integrity of legal operators. This article critically analyzes ethical training in contemporary Latin American legal education and its impact on the social legitimacy of the lawyer's professional practice. The research adopts a qualitative approach of a doctrinal, normative and comparative nature, based on the documentary analysis of recent scientific literature, regulatory frameworks of higher education and codes of professional ethics, as well as on the curricular review of Law programs in public universities in Peru, Colombia, Chile and Mexico. The results show a persistent gap between the formal recognition of ethics in educational and professional regulations and its effective implementation in curricula and legal practice. It is found that ethics tends to occupy a marginal or fragmented place in university education, with punitive approaches predominating in the regulation of professional practice, which limits the internalization of substantive ethical values. The study concludes that the legitimacy of the professional practice of law alone cannot be sustained by disciplinary mechanisms, but requires a comprehensive, transversal and sustained ethical training from legal education, aimed at strengthening the commitment to justice, human rights and the rule of law in Latin America.