Legal Culture and the Legal Profession

by Lawrence M. Friedman, Harry N. Scheiber

The American legal system is under heavy attack for the impact it is supposed to have on American culture and society generally. A common complaint of the anti-lawyer movement is that under the influence of lawyers we have become a in the process undermining traditional American values such as self-reliance and responsibility.In this volume a group of distinguished scholars in law and the social sciences explores these questions. Neither an apology for lawyers nor a critique, Legal Culture and the Legal Profession examines the successes and the problems of the U.S. legal system, its impact on the broader culture, and the spread of American legal culture abroad.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Professor of law.

Also author of mystery novels, The Frank May Chronicles.

Reviews

[Barron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Little more than harrumphing and speculation in a compilation where I'm sure the editors hoped for better essays adequate to their interesting topic, but ended up with these instead. The issues discussed here are far better addressed by Amalia Kessler's "Inventing American Exceptionalism: The Origins of American Adversarial Legal Culture, 1800-1877."