Discussions and depictions of lawyers in Canada largely ignore a significant segment of the legal population: government lawyers. Canada is a modern liberal democratic state with a significant public sector employing a large number of lawyers in many public sector settings. Lawyers who work directly for the executive branch – government lawyers – are a special subset of public lawyers. These government lawyers are ‘unique’ in many respects. They do not have paying clients as do private sector lawyers. Their client is ‘the Crown’ – an abstract emanation of the state. This article explains the unique role of government lawyers in Canada as derived from the historic and legislative responsibilities of the Attorney General. It then addresses questions that arise for government lawyers in Canada in public law litigation.

中文翻译：

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加拿大政府律师的“独特角色”

对加拿大律师的讨论和描述在很大程度上忽略了很大一部分合法人口：政府律师。加拿大是一个现代自由民主国家，拥有重要的公共部门，在许多公共部门环境中雇用了大量律师。直接为行政部门工作的律师——政府律师——是公共律师的一个特殊子集。这些政府律师在许多方面都是“独一无二的”。他们不像私营部门的律师那样有付费客户。他们的客户是“王冠”——国家的抽象化身。本文解释了政府律师在加拿大的独特作用，源于总检察长的历史和立法责任。然后，它解决了加拿大政府律师在公法诉讼中出现的问题。