First published in 1981

Lawyers in Early Modern Europe and America aims to present a convenient conspectus on the legal professions in early modern Europe, Scotland, France, Spain, and Colonial America, and to provide a comparative perspective on the place of the legal profession in Western societies before the Industrial Revolution. The main themes covered by each contributor are: the status, number, and vocational functions of the different classes or groups of lawyers; their social origins; education and career patterns; relations between lawyers and clients, other occupations and status-groups, and the state; the extent of legal ‘professionalisation’ and the role of lawyers as ‘modernisers’ in cultural, economic, political, and social terms. This book will be of interest to students of history, law, and political science.