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.     

Diversity in the Judiciary: The Case For Positive Action

A range of policies has been developed in England and Wales to reform the judicial appointments process so as to promote greater diversity. But despite two decades of official activity, the pace of change has been far slower than anticipated. Increasing awareness of the intransigence of the problem has led to a greater willingness to revisit some of the more fundamental tenets which have underpinned the approach to the problem to date, in particular, the unquestioning and inflexible commitment to the principle of equal treatment. This article examines the different forms of positive action which might play a part in the development of new diversity strategies for the judiciary. It reviews the arguments for and against different types, in terms of effectiveness, quality of appointments, and equity. It goes on to consider the legal frameworks which govern diversity and equality policies and assesses the legal implications of adopting different forms of positive action.     

完善律师收费制度 推进我国律师事业的健康发展

完善律师收费制度,是国家价格主管部门和司法行政部门认真贯彻落实胡锦涛总书记等中央领导同志关于律师工作的重要指示精神,加强律师制度改革,推进律师事业发展的重要措施。党中央、国务院高度重视律师收费制度改革工作,把完善律师收费制度列入了中央司法体制和工作机制改革的工作部署。在中央领导同志的直接关怀和中央政法委的具体指导下,经过国家发展改革委和司法部的共同努力,《律师服务收费管理办法》已经批准发布了。我就司法行政机关、律师协会贯彻执行《办法》,做好完善律师收费制度的工作讲三点意见。一、全面把握律师收费制度改革…     

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。     

The Legal Profession as a Social Process: A Theory on Lawyers and Globalization

This article proposes a processual theory of the legal profession. In contrast to the structural, interactional, and collective action approaches, this processual theory conceptualizes the legal profession as a social process that changes over space and time. The social process of the legal profession includes four components: (1) diagnostic struggles over professional expertise; (2) boundary work over professional jurisdictions; (3) migration across geographical areas and status hierarchies; and (4) exchange between professions and the state. Building on the processual theory and using China as a primary example, the author proposes a research agenda for studying lawyers and globalization that seeks to shift the focus of research from the legal elite to ordinary law practitioners, from global law firms to local law firms, and from advanced economies to emerging economies.     

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.     

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。     

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.     

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。     

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.     

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.     

试论法律职业伦理教育

法律职业伦理教育是内化法律职业伦理理念,提高法律人职业素养的社会活动,是法律教育的重要内容。法律职业伦理教育不仅存在于法律职业的执业活动中,同时延伸至法律职业准入前的阶段及法律职业执业活动结束以后的阶段。其内容包括:法律职业伦理的本质属性和基本原则、法律职业伦理的特点与社会功能、法律职业伦理的基本规范以及法律职业伦理的内化和养成。一、法律职业伦理教育历史溯源法律职业产生伊始,就有了对法律职业的伦理要求法律职业伦理的教育也就应运而生,但法律职业伦理的学校教育的发展则经历了一个漫长的过程。在古代,对于法律…     

Professionalization as Status Adaptation: The Nobility, the Bureaucracy, and the Modernization of the Legal Profession in Finland

In contrast to Anglo-American lines of professional development, the central agent of professionalization in many Continental countries was the state bureaucracy. However, this article proposes that an understanding of the class structure of traditional society is also needed to explain the privileged position of lawyers. An historical study of lawyers in the 19th century, after Finland was annexed by Russia, demonstrates that the legal profession provided the nobility an important medium of adaptation to the new society. The importance of the legal profession initially to the state bureaucracy, and subsequently to the nobility, explains its social prominence and its future development. An analysis of the position and needs of the prominent classes in the society of Old Regimes may constitute a fruitful viewpoint in the study of early professionalization in the Continental context more generally.     

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。     

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。