Legal Culture And The Legal Profession

Book excerpt: Distinguished scholars in law and the social sciences examine the state of American legal culture, particularly adversarial legalism, in light of the criticisms of the current anti-lawyer movement. They assess the strengths and weaknesses of this culture, its impact on the broader society, and its recent spread to other countries. 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 litigious society, 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.