Law as Reproduction and Revolution: An Interconnected History

251 Pages·2021·5.415 MB·English

by  Bryant G. Garth, Yves Dezalay

LAW | SOCIOLOGY
This sweeping book details the extent to which the legal revolution emanating from the US
has transformed legal hierarchies of power across the globe, while also analyzing the con-
joined global histories of law and social change from the Middle Ages to today. It exam-
ines the global proliferation of large corporate law firms—a US invention—along with US
legal education approaches geared toward those corporate law firms. This neoliberal-inspired
revolution attacks complacent legal oligarchies in the name of America-inspired modernism.
Drawing on the combined histories of the legal profession, imperial transformations, and the
enduring and conservative role of cosmopolitan elites at the top of legal hierarchies, the book
details case studies in India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and China to explain how inter-
connected legal histories are stories of both revolution and reproduction. Theoretically and
methodologically ambitious, it offers a wholly new approach to studying interrelated fields
across time and geographies.
“A highly original work that develops and merges different scholarly traditions into a unique
analytic framework, illustrating how legal fields and fields of state power worldwide have been
interwoven in their development from the Middle Ages until today.” OLE HAMMERSLEV, A
n
Professor of Sociology of Law, University of Southern Denmark In
t
e
r
“Probably the most important work ever done on the global history of the legal profession c
o
n
and its role in constructing the state and capitalism since the Middle Ages. These authors n
e
c An Interconnected History
have been honing their theoretical framework for decades and building up an unparalleled t
e
d
comparative knowledge of the global legal profession. This is their master work, the kind of H
comparative work that rarely comes along and that can be field-redefining.” CAROL JONES, ist
o
r
Honorary Professor, University of Birmingham, School of Law y
YVES DEZALAY is Emeritus Director of Research, Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique.
BRYANT G. GARTH is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California,
Irvine School of Law. 
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Cover images: (upper) photo from 2016 of the inner courtyard of the Archiginnasio
at the University of Bologna, the first faculty of law in Medieval Europe, photo
by Conte di Cavour and courtesy Creative Commons; (lower) photo from 1901 of
Harvard Law School, Detroit Publishing Co., no. 53548.
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Law as Reproduction and Revolution

Law as Reproduction
and Revolution
An Interconnected History
Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2021 by Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. To
view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.
Suggested citation: Dezalay, Y. and Garth, B. G. Law as Reproduction and
Revolution: An Interconnected History. Oakland: University of California
Press, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.110
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dezalay, Yves, 1945- author. | Garth, Bryant G., author.
Title: Law as reproduction and revolution : an interconnected history /
Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021006465 (print) | LCCN 2021006466 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780520382718 (paperback) | ISBN 9780520382725 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Law—History. | Lawyers—History. |
Sociological jurisprudence. | Law—East Asia—American influences.
Classification: LCC K150 .D49 2021 (print) | LCC K150 (ebook) |
DDC 340.09—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021006465
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021006466
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Publication supported by a grant from
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
as part of the Urban Haven Project.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Part I. Introduction
1. Legal Revolutions, Cosmopolitan Legal Elites, and Interconnected
Histories 3
Part II. Learned Law and Social Change: Theoretical
Orientation and European Geneses
2. Sociological Perspectives on Social Change and the Role of Learned
Law: Building on and Going beyond Berman and Bourdieu 19
3. Learned Law, Legal Education, Social Capital, and States:
European Geneses of These Relationships and the Enduring Role
of Family Capital 31
Part III. The Construction of the United States as the Major
Protagonist in Promoting Legal Revolution
4. US Legal Hybrids, Corporate Law Firms, the Langdellian Revolution
in Legal Education, and the Construction of a US-Oriented
International Justice through an Alliance of US Corporate Lawyers
and European Professors 59
5. Social and Neoliberal Revolutions in the United States 75