Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities (Oxford Socio-Legal Studies)

Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities (Oxford Socio-Legal Studies)

Why do some lawyers devote themselves to a given social movement or political cause? How are such deeds of individual commitment and personal belief justly executed, given the ideals of disinterested professional service to which lawyers are (in theory, at least) supposed to adhere? What can we learn from such lawyers about the relationship between law and politics? Cause Lawyering is a wise and varied collection of responses to these questions, featuring a number of distinguished legal scholars concerned with anti-poverty lawyers, lawyers who work against capital punishment, immigration lawyers, and other lawyers working to end oppression. Editors Austin Sarat and Stuart Scheingold have assembled here a valuable cross-national portrait of lawyers compelled to sacrifice financial gain so as to use their legal skills in the promotion of a more just society. These telling and important essays fully explore the relationship between cause lawyering and the organized legal professions of many different countries--the US, England, South Africa, Israel, Cuba, and so forth. They describe the utility of law as a resource in political struggles and, conversely, highlight the constraints under which lawyers necessarily operate when they turn to politics. Some provide broad theoretical overviews; others present rich case studies. Advancing a fundamental argument about the very nature of the legal profession, this book explains the strategies that cause lawyers deploy, as well as the challenges they face in trying to be legally astute and effective while remaining politically devoted and aware. Although it is a controversial way of practicing law, cause lawyering, as explicated in the essays in this volume, is indeed indispensable to the legitimization of professional authority. " Cause Lawyering offers a fascinating collection of empirical and theoretical work on a topic of considerable importance. This book also provides a set of tools and organizing principles that should reinvigorate both national and comparative studies of what has become a neglected sector of the legal profession--those trying to improve the lives of the disadvantaged."--Bryant Garth, Director of the American Bar Foundation " Cause Lawyering is a comprehensive, transnational description and analysis of lawyers who put social goals ahead of client considerations. In elegant and provocative terms, Professors Sarat and Scheingold and their colleagues tell us what cause lawyers do, who they are, why they are committed to social causes, and what they accomplish. These lawyers, frequently working at the margins of legal systems and rarely well-paid, are the true statespeople of the legal profession and it is fitting that their efforts be analyzed by such an accomplished and thoughtful group of sociolegal scholars."--William L. F. Felstiner, Distinguished Research Professor of Law, University of Wales, Cardiff "Very strong....There is not a bad essay in the collection; some of the essays are strikingly fresh and original. The range of essays, extending to cause lawyering in various undeveloped societies and contrasting these with the liberal societies of the West, is especially impressive. The essays are, on the average, so much better than anything else in their field that they set a new standard for the study of cause lawyers....A first-rate collection...there is nothing I know of in print that approaches it in quality and breath."--Robert Gordon, Yale Law School "Brilliant essays expose the spectrum of activities undertaken by cause lawyers to foster their commitments to justice beyond the boundaries of law and politics....Suitable for faculty and graduate students in public law, this book presents a clear and lucid picture of the concept of cause lawyering."-- Choice A variety of legal scholars study the methods and motives of lawyers devoted to political causes Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. He has written and edited many books and articles on the theory and practice of law, including Race, Law, and Culture (OUP, 1997) and Divorce Lawyers and Their Clients (OUP, 1995). Stuart Scheingold is Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is the author of The Politics of Street Crime (1991) and The Politics of Law and Order (1984), among other books.