Edited by Abel, Richard L., and Philip S. C. Lewis, University of California Press, 1995

Among all those who encounter the law in the conduct of their lives or who consider it as a career, few have a solid understanding of the legal profession in America, and fewer still know anything about systems in other parts of the world. Lawyers in Society offers a concise comparative introduction to the practice of law in a number of countries: England, Germany, Japan, Venezuela, and Belgium.

Extracted from the editors' three highly successful volumes Lawyers in Society, these essays guide readers through the differing worlds of civil and common law, law in Europe and Asia, and first and third world legal systems. One contribution addresses the changing role of women in the profession--women comprise half of all new lawyers in most countries--and the changes they are bringing. A new introduction and concluding essay reflect on the place of this volume in current and future research.
 

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About the Author:

Richard L. Abel is Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. Philip S.C. Lewis is Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

Preface:

This book contains seven essays from the three volumes published in 1988-89 under the general title Lawyers in Society, as well as a new introduction in which Richard Abel surveys recent theoretical developments and responds to criticisms of the market control theory, which informed many of the national studies.

The first two volumes, each with an introductory overview, comprise reports on seven common law and eleven civil law professions; the third volume contains eleven comparative and theoretical essays based on the national reports. Selection of the essays that appear here was hard, not just because of the high quality of all the chapters but also because they were intended to illuminate one another rather than be read in isolation. We have attempted to provide a cross section wide enough to be of value in itself (for instance, as the core material of a course) and also sufficient to suggest to readers the breadth of our original project and to encourage them to consult it. Chapter 3, on the German legal profession, has been updated by its authors, Erhard Blankenburg and Ulrike Schultz, to describe significant recent events, especially those accompanying unification; the other essays are reprinted unchanged. Had we been able to revise all the chapters there are omissions we would have filled and subsequent changes we would have described; we invite others to do so.

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