Ethical Standards in the NASW Code of Ethics: The Explicit Legal Model, and Beyond

Abstract

The Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers loosely follows the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, but provides less protection for professionals. Social workers may benefit by adopting the Model Rules, with contrasting commentary where legal and social work practices diverge. That contrast would highlight social work's ethical advantages and demonstrate the need for nonlegal ethical principles (in economics, for example) that are underrepresented in the NASW Code of Ethics. Development of companion ethical statements (of social work economic ethics, for example) would give social workers improved ethical guidance. Such companion statements, possibly developed through empowered participation by the spectrum of social workers, may ultimately yield an empirically informed statement of definition and mission for the profession.

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