THE PARADOXES OF PRO BONO

Pro bono is a puzzle. It provides high quality legal services to large numbers of clients who would otherwise go unrepresented, thereby helping to fulfill our legal system’s promise of “Equal Justice under Law.” But what a bizarre way to address a foundational element of liberal legalism. Could we imagine relying on volunteerism to perform other core governmental functions: police (the deputy sheriffs of the frontier are a distant memory), national security (privateers), foreign relations (honorary consuls), education (volunteer parents as the only teachers), or transportation (hitchhiking)?1 There is something very strange about having privileged lawyers—who earn huge incomes by acting for large corporations and wealthy individuals—constitute a major source of legal representation for the poor and subordinated. The excellent article by Scott Cummings and Deborah Rhode offers an opportunity to reflect on the significance of this striking manifestation of American exceptionalism. Like other services to the poor—poor houses, orphanages, soup kitchens, and hospitals—legal aid began as a charitable activity, performed initially by religious groups (indeed, such representation is still called “Pro Deo” in civil law countries) and then by voluntary associations (often motivated by solicitude for fellow immigrants).2 In 1965, however, the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) launched the Legal Services Program, expanding the nation’s annual expenditure on civil legal aid from less than $5 million to more than $300 million in fifteen years.3 U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 1963 and 1972 gave accused indigent criminals a constitutional right to free representation.4 In other countries—notably England, Canada, and Australia in the common-law world, and the Netherlands, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries in the civil-law world—the state accepted responsibility for legal aid earlier and more comprehensively.5 In the United States, pro bono persisted in the form of noninstitutionalized acts of

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.