Lawyers and the Rise of Western Political Liberalism: Europe and North America from the Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries

In contrast to other theories of legal professions, which neglect politics, this volume advances a political theory of lawyers' collective action by demonstrating lawyers' influence on the emergence and development of western political liberalism. Four sociologists and four historians show how layers, over several centuries, have been variously committed to the building of liberal political society in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. The introductory chapters, written by the editors, present a theoretical argument that integrates the historical and comparative studies of lawyers' engagement in three areas of liberal politics: the constitution of the moderate state, the institutions of civil society, and the constitution of individual rights. The editors conclude the book with an essay on lawyers' historical involvements in political globalization. This fresh interpretation not only demonstrates the variety of relationships between lawyers and politics, but it delineates issues, concepts, and a theory that helps understand the current action of lawyers in new democracies.

1. Politics Matter: a Comparative Theory of Lawyers in the Making of Political Liberalism ; 2. Barristers, Politics, and the Failure of Civil Society in Old Regime France ; 3. Builders of Liberal Society: French Lawyers and Politics ; 4. Mrs Thatcher Against the Little Republics: Ideology, Precedents, and Reactions ; 5. Lawyers and Political Liberalism in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century England ; 6. State, Capitalism, and the Organization of Legal Counsel: Examining an Extreme Case - the Prussian Bar, 1700-1914 ; 7. Lawyers and the Limits of Liberalism: the German Bar in the Weimar Republic ; 8. Making the Courts Safe for the Powerful: the Commercial Stimulus for Judicial Autonomy in Reforms of the United States Bankruptcy Law ; 9. The Politics of Professionalism: the creation of Legal Aid and the strains of political liberalism in America, 1900-1930 ; Postscript: Lawyers, Political Liberalism, and Globalization