Sofisti e avvocati, I

A widespread opinion regards the lawyer as a “sophist” in the negative sense of the term, that is, a person prone to deceiving discourse and careless with respect to ideals of justice and truth. In fact such an aversion, which can be traced back to Plato’s condemnation of the lawyer as opposed to the figure of the philosopher who is devoted to truth, very often hides an authoritarian view of justice and especially of the penal trial. A charge can be said proven beyond all reasonable doubt only insofar as it is subjected to the most severe attempts at falsification, which in the penal trial gets to be realized through the practice of cross-examination. Such is properly the task of lawyers who, by unilaterally supporting the reasons of their clients, also serve the community’s interest in the fair unfolding of the trial and the sound reconstruction of the events.