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CHOICE Review

The second of three volumes devoted to the comparative study of lawyers and legal professions. The first, Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World (CH, Dec '88), focused on legal professions in 7 common law countries. The current volume builds on this by offering rich descriptions of lawyers in 11 civil law societies: Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Venezuela, Brazil, and Japan. The authors (prominent scholars and/or legal practitioners) have written brief chapters that are consistently informative, insightful, and well developed. Topics include forms of legal practice, recruitment, background characteristics of lawyers, distribution of legal services, regulations, and legal assistance programs for the poor. A truly comparative understanding of legal professions must await publication of Volume 3, which will use the data from the larger project to "draw theoretical and comparative conclusions," but the process of gaining such insight begins here in a solid and stimulating introductory chapter by Richard Abel. Very little has been written (especially in English) on lawyers in civil law systems; therefore this is a major contribution to the literature. Lists of references at chapter ends provide useful bibliographic information. All levels. -M. Kessler, University of Kentucky