刑辩律师职业伦理中的保密义务

The Confidentiality Obligation in the Professional Ethics of Criminal Defense Lawyers

摘要: 辩护律师对执业中知悉的各类秘密负有保密责任，仅在特定严重犯罪情形下承担披露义务，这一义务与大众伦理存在着一定冲突。本文以经典的“快乐湖沉尸案”为切入点，探寻冲突源于律师职业的经济性与社会性、委托人利益与社会公益、程序正义与实体正义之间的矛盾。提出协调保密义务与大众伦理的方法，即律师保密义务不能排斥大众伦理，且需完善刑辩律师保密义务制度，包括明晰保密义务主体、明确保密义务范围和例外等，从法律职业伦理视角探究我国辩护律师保密制度的现状及存在的问题，以期推动辩护制度的发展与完善。

Abstract: Defense lawyers have the responsibility to keep confidential all kinds of secrets they become aware of during their practice and only undertake the obligation of disclosure in specific serious criminal circumstances. This obligation conflicts to some extent with public ethics. This article takes the classic “Happy Lake Corpse Sinking Case” as the entry point to explore the contradictions that arise from the economic and social aspects of the legal profession, the interests of the clients and social public welfare, and procedural justice and substantive justice. A method for coordinating the confidentiality obligation and public ethics is proposed. That is, the confidentiality obligation of lawyers should not exclude public ethics, and the confidentiality obligation system of criminal defense lawyers needs to be improved, including clarifying the subject of the confidentiality obligation, defining the scope and exceptions of the confidentiality obligation, etc. The current situation and existing problems of the confidentiality system of defense lawyers in China are explored from the perspective of legal professional ethics, with the expectation of promoting the development and improvement of the defense system.