The world's legal professions have undergone dramatic changes in the 30 years since publication of the landmark three-volume Lawyers in Society, which launched comparative sociological studies of lawyers. This is the first of two volumes in which scholars from a wide range of disciplines, countries and cultures document and analyse those changes.
The present volume presents reports on 46 countries, with broad coverage of North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Asia, Australia, North Africa and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and former communist countries. These national reports address: the impact of globalisation and neoliberalism on national legal professions (the relationship of lawyers and their professional associations to the state and tensions between state and citizenship); changes in lawyer demography (rapidly growing numbers and the profession's efforts to retain control, the entry of women and obstacles to full gender equality, ethnic diversity); legal education (the proliferation of institutions and pedagogic innovation); the regulation of lawyers; structures of production (especially the growth of large firms and the impact of technology and paraprofessionals); the distribution of lawyers across roles; and access to justice (state-funded legal aid and pro-bono services). The juxtaposition of the reports reveals the dramatic transformations of professional rationales, labour markets, and working practices and the multiple contingencies of the role of lawyers in societies experiencing increasing juridification within a new geopolitical order.
Table Of Contents
1. Lawyers in a New Geopolitical Conjuncture: Continuity and Change
Hilary Sommerlad and Ole Hammerslev
PART I
ANGLO-AMERICAN COMMON LAW
2. Australia: A Legal Profession Globalised and Magnified
Margaret Thornton and Asmi Wood
3. Canada: Continuity and Change in a Modern Legal Profession
Ronit Dinovitzer and Meghan Dawe
4. England and Wales: A Legal Profession in the Vanguard of Professional Transformation?
Hilary Sommerlad, Andrew Francis, Joan Loughrey and Steven Vaughan
5. Scotland: Caught between Nationalism and the Market: What Does the Future Hold for Scots Lawyers?
Alan Paterson and Peter Robson
6. United States: Out of Many Legal Professions, One?
Scott L Cummings, Carroll S Seron, Ann Southworth, Rebecca L Sandefur, Steven A Boutcher and Anna Raup-Kounovsky
PART II
WESTERN EUROPEAN CIVIL LAW
7. Belgium: A Law Degree Opens the Door to a Lot of Occupations, Even the Bar
Steven Gibens, Bernard Hubeau, Stefan Rutten, Jean Van Houtte and Margot Van Leuvenhaege
8. Denmark, Sweden and Norway: Liberalisation, Differentiation and the Emergence of a Legal Services Market
Ole Hammerslev
9. France: The Reconfiguration of a Profession
Christian Bessy and Benoit Bastard
10. Germany: Resistance and Reactions to Demands of Modernisation
Matthias Kilian and Ulrike Schultz
11. Italy: A Delicate Balance between Maintenance and Change
Evelyn Micelotta and Gabrielle Dorian
12. Netherlands: Developments and Challenges
Nienke Doornbos and Leny de Groot-van Leeuwen
13. Switzerland: The End of Prosperity in the Age of Globalisation?
Isabel Boni-Le Goff, Eléonore Lépinard, Grégoire Mallard and Nicky Le Feuvre
PART III
EASTERN EUROPE AND RUSSIA
14. Czech Republic: Legal Professions Looking for Serenity and Stability
Jan Kober
15. Poland: Opening the Legal Professions
Kaja Gadowska
16. Russia: Challenges of the Market and Boundary Work
Ekaterina Moiseeva and Timur Bocharov
17. Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina: Challenges of Liberalisation and Democratic Consolidation
Danilo Vukovic, Valerija Dabeticand Samir Foric
PART IV
LATIN AMERICA
18. Argentina: The Long Transition of the Legal Profession
Martin Böhmer
19. Brazil: Fragmentary Development, Democratisation, and Globalisation
Maria da Gloria Bonelli and Pedro Fortes
20. Chile: Lawyers Engage with the Market, Specialisation, and Rights
Cristián Villalonga
21. Mexico: Significant Growth and Under-Regulation of the Legal Profession
Luis Fernando Perez-Hurtado
22. Venezuela: A Despatch from the Abyss
Manuel Gómez and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo
PART V
AFRICA
23. Burundi: Middlemen and Opponents in the Shadow of the Ethno-state
Sara Dezalay
24. Kenya: Between Globalisation and Constitutionalism
Winifred Kamau
25. Nigeria: An Account of Adaptation
Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe
26. South Africa: A Profession in Transformation
Jonathan Klaaren
27. Zimbabwe: Legal Practitioners, Politics and Transformation Since 1980
George H Karekwaivanane
PART VI
NORTH AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
28. Egypt: The Long Decline of the Legal Profession
Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron and Menna Omar
29. Iran: A Clash of Two Legal Cultures?
Reza Banakar and Keyvan Ziaee
30. Israel: Numbers, Make-Up and Modes of Practice
Eyal Katvan, Limor Zer-Gutman and Neta Ziv
31. Libya: Lawyers between Ideology and the Market
Jessica Carlisle
32. Palestine: Lawyering between Colonisation and the Struggle for Professional Independence
Mutaz M Qafisheh
33. Tunisia: A Political Profession?
Eric Gobe
34. Turkey: Emergence and Development of the Legal Profession
Seda Kalem
PART VII
ASIA
35. China: A Tale of Four Decades
Sida Liu
36. India: Present and Future: A Revised Sociological Portrait
Swethaa S Ballakrishnen
37. Indonesia: Professionals, Brokers and Fixers
Santy Kouwagam and Adriaan Bedner
38. Japan: Towards Stratifi cation, Diversification and Specialisation
Masayuki Murayama
39. Myanmar: Law as a Desirable and Dangerous Profession
Melissa Crouch
40. South Korea: Reshaping the Legal Profession
JaeWon Kim
41. Taiwan and Hong Kong: Localisation and Politicisation
Ching-Fang Hsu
42. Thailand: The Evolution of Law, the Legal Profession and Political Authority
Frank W Munger
43. Vietnam: From Cadres to a 'Managed' Profession
Pip Nicholson and Do Hai Ha
44. Comparative Sociology of Lawyers, 1988–2018: The Professional Project
Richard L Abel
