The Canadian Legal Profession

This article seeks to weave together the limited information available on the legal professions of the Canadian provinces. Following the same general format as the other comparative studies in this series, it also offers several critical observations of special interest to readers in the United States, whose experience the Canadian bar so closely tracks. The phenomenon of stratification—familiar to American observers—is clearly visible in the Canadian legal profession. Combined with other centrifugal forces, it threatens the unity of a profession which, until recently, has managed to preserve a high degree of cohesion in training, ideology, and institutional structures. On the other hand, in certain respects, the Canadian experience seems to differ from that of the United States, especially in the strength and peculiar structure of publicly funded legal aid schemes, in the profession's continuing formal autonomy and relative immunity from public regulation, and in its long-lasting attachment to apprenticeship as a necessary stage in professional formation. These and other convergences and divergences between the two countries raise questions of general significance: To what extent do the similarities between Canada and the United States verify the assumption implicit in the theoretical literature (principally Abel, Freidson, and Larson) that there is an empirical referent for something called legal professionalism? And to what extent do the differences suggest that containing societies contribute distinctive characteristics to their legal professions, whose qualities are therefore highly contingent?     

法律援助:政府责任与律师义务

在法律援助的实践中,政府和律师基于不同的根据承担法律援助的责任和义务。对律师提供法律援助义务的强制性规定有可能导致政府责任虚化或为政府转嫁其责任提供根据。倡导律师的职业伦理,建立人权律师制度,有助于强化律师法律援助的义务。     

The Human Rights Act and Legal Culture: The Judiciary and the Legal Profession

The purpose of this article is to consider the effect the United Kingdom’s currently prevailing legal culture is likely to have on the realization of cultural change presaged by the Human Rights Act. The article is in five parts. The first two address the preliminary questions: what is meant by ‘legal culture’ for these purposes, and what type of ‘human rights culture’ does the Human Rights Act envisage? The answers define the scope of the remainder of the article’s inquiry into the ways in which the Act itself and the culture of the United Kingdom legal profession and judiciary are likely to interact. The third part of the article identifies some examples of the sorts of culturally specific aspects of current legal practice which are likely to operate as serious practical constraints on the emergence of a human rights culture worthy of the name, before the fourth part considers what sorts of cultural changes will be required of judges and lawyers for the presaged cultural transformation to come about. Finally, the article asks whether there is any reason to believe that courts and lawyers can find from within their present culture the resources to bring about the necessary shift.     

The Effects of Changes to Legal Aid on Lawyers' Professional Identity and Behaviour in Summary Criminal Cases: A Case Study

This article explores the effects of changes to legally aided representation on criminal cases in magistrates' courts according to data collected in an area of south‐east England. I consider the political factors that motivated changes to legal aid and suggest how these issues affecting lawyers' understanding of their role, and how that understanding affects the relationships between defendants, lawyers, and the magistrates' courts. I argue that the research indicates a potential relation between solicitors' risk‐taking behaviour in obtaining funding and the reintroduction of means testing: remuneration rates affect the service that defendants receive and the reintroduction of means testing decreased efficiency in summary criminal courts. Ultimately, I argue that changes to legal aid funding have increased lawyers' uncertainty about their role, leaving them torn between acting efficiently and providing a good level of service.     

论法律秩序与律师功用

在人类法律秩序的建构中,律师扮演了十分重要的角色.主要表现为协助社会主体了解法律权利的内容、协助社会主体正确行使法律权利和协助社会主体救治被侵害的权利和利益三大方面.我们应当认识和遵循律师职业在社会主义中国的重要作用和内在规律,借鉴发达国家律师发展的经验,完善和健全律师制度,以充分发挥律师在我国法治化进程中的功能.     

Intraprofessional Competition and Earnings Inequalities Across a Professional Chasm: The Case of the Legal Profession in Québec,Canada

Intraprofessional rivalry has a long history. This article examines earnings disparities as a dimension of intraprofessional competition among avocats and notaires in the civil law system of Québec, Canada. Drawing on two large‐scale surveys and in‐depth interviews with legal professionals, I examine three competing perspectives of earnings inequalities: human capital, social‐symbolic capital, and organizational‐structural explanations. Through this analysis I seek to examine whether similar causal processes shape earnings across the two spheres of legal practice in Québec. The findings of this study clearly demonstrate that these two professional groups are equipped with differential stocks of capital, and conversion rates differ drastically. Avocats receive greater exchange on their investments in human and social‐symbolic capitals. These disparities are most pronounced in sectors of the profession where jurisdictional frictions abound: among notaires and avocats working as solo practitioners and in small firms within competitive urban contexts. The article concludes with a discussion of theoretical extensions and future directions for the study of legal professionals in civil law systems and blended jurisdictions.     

Specialization and Prestige in the Legal Profession: The Structure of Deference

The process of specialization is now well advanced within the legal profession, and the specialties have acquired clearly varying levels of prestige among the practicing bar. What are the characteristics of the specialties, or of the lawyers who practice in them, that might account for these variations in prestige? In describing the prestige differences and several of the variables that might be thought to account for them, the authors analyze the results of a survey of a large random sample of Chicago lawyers. Among the findings are a strong relationship between prestige within the legal profession and the type of clients that the specialty serves, a substantial correlation between prestige and the degree of intellectual challenge presented by the subject matter of the specialty, and the perhaps surprising result that prestige is not significantly associated with the income earned by lawyers practicing in the specialty. The authors conclude that legal specialties that regularly confront personal suffering lose social standing as a result, that prestige within the profession is directly proportional to the degree to which the specialty facilitates the conduct of corporate enterprise, and that the varying prestige of the specialties is likely to affect the political and professional power of the lawyers who practice in them and to influence the patterns of recruitment of lawyers into law practice.     

Postmodern Professions? The Fragmentation of Legal Education and the Legal Profession

This article considers the institutional dimensions of professionalism and the legal profession's struggle with the challenges of post-modernity. An aspect of this is the Law Society's Training Framework Review (TFR) which promises changes to solicitors' education from 'cradle to grave'. The first part of the article analyses the structure and drivers of the TFR, their origins, and how they will be articulated. Secondly, the TFR is considered in the context of the political economy of higher education and its role in the new capitalism. Finally, we examine the potential effects of the TFR for the legal profession in the context of increasing practice segmentation and the threat of deprofessionalization, and also for the Law Society itself, whether it can retain a key role in the life course of the legal profession.     

Gendering the Legal Complex: Women in Sri Lanka's Legal Profession

Drawing upon feminist standpoint theory and interviews with pioneering women lawyers in Sri Lanka, I argue for a focus on women as a distinct category in ‘legal complex theory’. I consider the following questions in making this claim. What were the internal structures of the legal profession that the older generations of women lawyers encountered as they entered the profession and as they took up positions of leadership? In what ways, if at all, was the ‘culture(s)’ within the profession patriarchal? In what ways, if any, did the entry and advancement of women impact these internal structures of the profession and its culture(s)? And what can we learn from these experiences in predicting the future trajectory of the legal profession? The analytical expansion that I propose reveals gender-based dynamics within the legal complex, such as gender-stereotyped perceptions about women lawyers within the profession, the ‘feminization’ of the profession, and ‘gender segmentation’ within its different spheres.     

丹麦律师行业的现状

律师的社会地位 在丹麦，律师是一种自由职业，这就意味着任何人只要符合特定的条件都可以成为律师队伍中的一员。因此，这一行业与其他所谓的“自由”职业，如审计师、会计师和地产代理人有许多类似的地方。丹麦执业律师的正式名称是AD—VOKAT。     

法律职业话语的解析

职业主义、精英主义和民粹主义构成了现代社会关于法律职业的三种话语系统和意识形态。职业主义是一种描绘和论证法律职业的理想图景的话语,精英主义是一种论证法律职业的正当性和合法性的话语,而民粹主义则是一种批判法律职业之弊害的话语。三种话语系统和意识形态之间的良性互动,是法律职业健康发展的有效保证。     

Affirmative Action in the Legal Profession

This article examines whether the legal profession should use quotas and decision-making preferences in recruitment and promotion in favour of women, ethnic minorities, and those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. It argues that this is necessary to eradicate current patterns of discrimination and disadvantage. It also argues that quotas and decision-making preferences do not necessarily conflict with appointment or promotion on merit, and hence that consequent unfairness to other applicants is more apparent than real. Moreover, any potential stigmatization of the beneficiaries of affirmative action is outweighed by the advantages in reversing the under-representation of women, ethnic minorities, and those from socially disadvantaged background, thereby challenging perceptions of their inferior qualities as lawyers. Finally, practical problems in the implementation of affirmative action are considered and argued to be insufficiently serious to stand in the way of its introduction.     

非道德性:现代法律职业伦理的困境

结合当下司法改革中所出现的一些典型事例,本文以"非道德性"为基本概念,系统描述和分析当代法律职业伦理所遭遇的困境,以及"自由主义"法学理论与之的内在性关联。最终,提出了以中国传统美德伦理学来克服这一困境的理论命题。     

中国律师的环境与资源

能够有机会参加第四届中国律师论坛很高兴,我这个人每次给律师讲课之前要特别深思,10年内我给律师做过类似的题目大概有5次。今天又给大家选了一个题目,律师的环境与资源。人类生存离不开环境,同样律师要发展,如果他的生存环境被破坏了,它的发展就受到限制。我这个题目更多地是想来思考如何正确地对待律师的环境和资源。人与资源的环境有一个认识的过程,我觉得认识一个自然现象比认识人还是要简单一些。我们要认识一个人的话,认识别人和认识自己恐怕认识别人比认识自己更要容易一些。我想认识客观世界或者是主观世界,认识主观世界难,认识     

重新认识法律职业：律师与社会公益

经过20多年的恢复与重建，我国的律师事业获得了重大发展，各项制度得以确立并逐步走向完善，律师从业人数也初具规模，律师行业的整体素质也有了较大的提高。但是长久以来在中国，作为维护私权、旨在实现其所代理的客户利益的律师，似乎与社会公共利益之间并无关联且相去甚远。然而，这一现象究竟是法律职业的共性还是中国转型期的特性？律师与社会公共利益之间究竟有无联系？从国家与社会公益的视角看，究竟应当怎样看待法律职业？本文拟就这些问题，作初步的探讨。     

律师职业与社会环境的关系

律师职业，是现代社会中普遍存在的一种社会职业，无论是资本主义国家，还是社会主义国家，律师在协助社会主体认识法律权利、正确行使法律权利和救治被侵害的法律权利，促进社会法律秩序的建构中，都发挥着十分重要的作用。然而，当我们用法哲学的眼光来审视与律师职业相关的若干社会条件时，我们不难发现，无论过去或现在，社会条件不同，律师职业的外在样式和内在机制表现便存在差异。因此，研究律师职业与不同社会条件的关系，揭示其内在规律，对于推动我国社会环境的改造，促进我国律师职业的改革和完善，使其更好地为我国社会主义社会服务，具有重要意义。     

The Financial Rewards of Elite Status in the Legal Profession

This article focuses on the role of intergenerational status attainment for legal careers. By decomposing the earnings gap between elite and nonelite lawyers at two points in their careers, we find that inherited cultural capital produces an earnings advantage as soon as lawyers begin their careers and that this gap persists over time. We further find that the processes underlying this gap change as lawyers make their way through the profession. While in early careers, the elite advantage is due to stronger starting endowments, the advantage for junior lawyers results from a more complex process, which combines starting endowments, professional capital gained during the first years of practice, and the rate at which endowments are differentially rewarded in the profession. Elaborating on work that identifies the importance of maintaining and concentrating diverse forms of capital in the legal profession, we explain the process through which elite lawyers gain and retain their advantage over time.     

中国律师的走向——《律师法》修改前瞻

一、律师——从无到有走向职业化律师制度在我们国家最早出现是在一百年前的清末,但当时纯粹是照搬国外的,生吞活剥地从国外抄来律师资格、注册、职责、处分等九条规定。一直到建国以前,我们国家的律师制度是存在的,起到了一定的作用,但是没有在建设法治国家方面起到一个根本作用。建国以后律师的作用越来越小,到了“文革”就完全没有了。文革以后,1979年司法部恢复重建司法行政,重新开始法律服务工作,现代意义上的律师始得复兴。律师业经过20多年的发展到今天,基本具备了这么几个职业化的特点:第一个特点,它是一个独立的职业。律师之所以说…