LAW VERSUS ETHICS - RECONCILING 2 CONCEPTS OF PUBLIC-SERVICE ETHICS

Developing a workable system of public service ethics is difficult owi ng, to a fundamental tension between law (public duties) and ethics (p rivate duties). This article surveys the literature on legal ethics to observe how a well-defined public service profession has reconciled t his tension, to some extent, through the adoption of a ''legalized'' c ode of ethics that also allows professionals to step from behind the p rescribed system of rules and engage his or her individual ethical sen se in appropriate instances. The article then surveys the literature o n administrative ethics and concludes that contrary to current trends aimed at deprofessionalizing the field public administration would ben efit from creating a new profession of public administrators that coul d adopt a code of ethics similar to the legal profession's code of eth ics, thus allowing for a fusion of legalized rules (public duties) and individual ethical precepts (private duties).